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Forever float that standard sheet." 



N EW YORK ; 
E B. TREAT & COMPANY 

1866, 



KEY-NOTES 



OP 



AMERICAN LIBERTY: 



COMPRISING 



THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECHES, PROCLAMATIONS, AND 

ACTS OF CONGRESS, FROM THE FOUNDATION 

OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE 

PRESENT TIME. 



WITH A 

HISTOEY OF THE FLAG, 

BY A DISTINGUISHED HISTOEIAN. 



IlIttstrat^K 




NEW YORK : 
E. B. TREAT & CO. 

654 BROADWAY. 



CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: K. C. TREAT and C. W. LILLEY. 
B. C. BAKER, DETROIT, MICH. I. C. BRAINARD, ST. LOUIS, MO. 

A. O. BRIGGS, CLEVELAND, O. M. PITMAN & CO., BOSTON. MASS. 

A. L. TALCOTT, PITTSBURG, PA. 






Enteeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

E. B. TREAT. 

fii the Clerk's OflBlce of the District Coiirt of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



■ueooNAiD * tTom, niiiTiiu aiu iTiiiccTTriiii, «• eiHTii (Tiiirr, 






i 



i 



PKEFACE 



This book appeals to the patriotic sentiments of 
all classes of readers. In its pages will be found 
those words of burning eloquence which lighted the 
fires of the American Eevolution, stirring the hearts 
of our fathers to do battle for our independence; 
the words of wisdom which brought our ship of state 
safely through the storms of strife into the calms of 
peace, and all of the most important speeches and 
proclamations of our statesmen which guided our 
country during critical periods of our political life. 
It is a book of our country as a whole ; all must 
read it with emotions of gratitude and pride at the 
grandeur and stability of our institutions as exempli- 
fied by the eloquent words of the statesmen and 
leading spirits of the great Republic. 

First in its pages, appropriately, will be found 
the " Declaration of Independence," the great corner 



VI PREFACE. 

stone of American liberty ; and as a fitting close, 
one of our most distinguished historians has fur- 
nished a " History of the Flag,"— the Flag of the 
Union, the sacred emblem around which are clus- 
tered the memories of the thousands of heroes who 
have struggled to sustain it untarnished against both 
foreign and domestic foes. To the Declaration of 
Independence, Constitution of the United States, 
and Washington's Farewell Address — truly " Key 
!N^otes to American Liberty " — have been added 
many important proclamations and congressional 
acts of a later day, namely : President Jackson's 
famous ]N^ullification Proclamation to South Caro- 
lina, The Monroe Doctrine, Dred Scott Decision, 
Neutrality laws, with numerous documents, state 
papers and statistical matter growing out of the late 
Rebellion ; all of which will be read with new and 
ever increasing interest. And as long as our 
Republic endures, these pages will be cherished as 
the representative of all that is great and good in 
our country ; and will prove incentives to our chil- 
'dren to follow in the footsteps of the patriots by 
whose genius and valor our institutions have been 
cherished and preserved, and liberty, like water 
made to run throughout the land free to all. 



CONTENTS. 



Declaeation op Independence, .... 9 

Constitution of the United States, , ... 18 

Amendments to the Constitution, , . . . 39 

Cokstitutional Amendment Abolishing Slavery, , 44 

Proposed Amendments of the XXXIXth Congress, 48 

The Ordinance of 1787, 51 

The Fugitive Slave Bill of 1793, .... 62 

The Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850, .... 65 

The Missouri Compromise, 67 

The States of the Union, with the Date of theib 

Admission, 69 

Inaugural Address of George Washington, . . 70 

Washington's Farewell Address, .... 77 
President Jackson's Proclamation to South 

Carolina, 105 

Monroe Doctrine, 144 

Dred Scott Decision, 146 

Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the United 

States, with the Popular Vote for Each, . 154 

Popular Names of States, 106 

Battles of the Kevolution, 167 



VIU 



CONTENTS. 



Neutrality Law of the United States, . 
Population of the United States, . . . . 
Slave Population in the U. S. in 1860, . 
Statistics op Slaveey Befoee the Revolution, . 
Speech of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, — His Last 

Words fob the Union, . ... 

President Lincoln's First Call Fob Troops, 
Total Number of Troops called into Seeviob during 

THE Rebellion, 

Resolutions of the N. Y. Chamber of Commebcb, 
Blockade Proclamation, by President Lincoln, 

Emancipation Proclamation, 

Confiscation Act, 

First Inaugural Address of President Lincoln, 
Balance Sheet of the Government, before and since 

THE War, 1859 and 1865, .... 
President Lincoln's Second and Last Inaugural 

Address, 

President Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty, 
President Johnson's Amnesty Proclamation, 
President Johnson's Peace Proclamation, 

The Civil Rights Bill, 

Fbeedmen's Bureau Bill, 

Provost Marshal-General's Report, of the killed and 

wounded during the Rebellion, . . . , 
The United States Army, showing the number of men 

furnished from each State during the Rebellion, 
History of the Flag, 



PAGE. 

168 

ire 

177 
178 

179 
186 

188 
189 
194 
197 
201 
204 

221 

222 
226 
232 
237 
239 
248 

261 

205 
266 



|cg-|tolfS 0f ^mmcait f ibrlg. 



DEOLAEATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

In Congeess, July 4, 1776. 
By the Representatives of the United States, in Congress assemUed, 

A DECLARATION. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes 
necessary for one people to dissolve the political 
bands which have connected them with another, and 
to assume among the powers of the earth the separate 
and equal station to which the laws of nature and of 
nature's God entitle them, a decent respect for the 
opinions of mankind requires that thej should declare 
the causes which impel them to the separation. 
1* 



10 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident : —that all 
men are created equal ; that thej are endowed by 
their Creator with certai»i inalienable rights ; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 
piness ; that to secure these rights, governments are 
instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed ; that whenisver any 
form of government becomes destructive of these 
ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish 
it, and to institute a new government, laying its 
foundation on such principles, and organizing its 
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, 
indeed, will dictate that governments long estab- 
lished should not be changed for light and transient 
causes ; and accordingly all experience hath shown 
that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils 
are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing 
the forms to which they are accustomed. But when 
a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing 
invariably the same object, evinces a design to 
reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their 
right, it is their duty, to throw off such governmen^^ 
and to provide new guards for their future security. 
Such has been the patient sufferance of these col- 
onies; and such is now the necessity which con 
strains them to alter their former system of govern- 



DECLAEATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 11 

ment. The history of the present King of Great 
Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpa- 
tions, all having in direct object the establishment of 
an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove 
this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. 

fie has refused his assent to laws the most whole- 
some and necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of 
immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended 
in their operation till his assent should be obtained ; 
and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to 
attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accom- 
modation of large districts of people, unless those 
people would relinquish the right of representation 
in the legislature — a right inestimable to them, and 
formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places 
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the deposi- 
tory of their public records, for the sole purpose of 
fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, 
for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on 
the right of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such disso- 
lutions, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the 
legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have 



12 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBEETT. 

returned to the people at large for their exercise ; 
the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to 
all the danger of invasion from without and convul- 
sions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of 
these States ; for that purpose obstructing the laws 
for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass 
others to encourage their migration hither, and 
raising the conditions of new appropriations of 
lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, 
bj refusing his assent to laws for establishing 
judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone 
for the tenure of their offices and the amount and 
payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and 
sent hither swarms of officers, to harrass our people 
and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, stand- 
ing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military indepen- 
dent of and superior to the civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a 
jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unac- 
knowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their 
acts of pretended legislation, — 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 13 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops 
among us : 

For protecting them, bj a mock trial, from pun- 
ishment for any murdere which they should commit 
on the inhabitants of these States : 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the 
world : 

For imposing taxes on ns without our consent : 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits 
of trial by jury : 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for 
pretended offences : 

For abolishing the free system of English law in 
a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbi- 
trary government, and enlarging its boundaries so 
as to render it at once an example and fit instrument 
for introducing the same absolute rule into these 
colonies : 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our 
most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the 
forms of our government: 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declar- 
ing themselves invested with power to legislate for 
us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here by declaring 
us out of his protection, and waging war against us 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, 



14 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAH LIBEETY. 

burned our towns, and destroj^ed the lives of our 
people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of 
foreign mercenaries, to complete the works of death, 
desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with circum- 
stances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in 
the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the 
head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken 
captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their 
country, to become the executioners of their friends 
and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst 
us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants 
of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose 
known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruc- 
tion of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have peti- 
tioned for redress in the most humble terms ; our 
petitions have been answered only by repeated 
injury. A prince whose character is thus marked 
by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to 
be the ruler of a free people. 

ISTor have we been wanting in attention to our 
British brethren. We have warned them, from time 
to time, of attempts made by their legislature to 
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 15 

have reminded them of the circumstances of our 
emigration and settlement here. We have appealed 
to their native justice and magnanimity, and we 
have conjured them, by the ties of our common kin- 
dred, to disavow these usurpations, which would 
inevitably interrupt our connections and correspon- 
dence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of 
justice and consanguinity. We must therefore 
acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our sep- 
aration, and hold them, as we hold the rest of man- 
kind, enemies in war — in peace, friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United 
States of America, in General Congress assembled, 
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for 
the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and 
by the authority of the good people of these colonies, 
solemnly publish and declare that these United Col- 
onies are, and of good right ought to be, free and 
independent States ; that they are absolved from all 
allegiance to the British crown, and that all political 
connection between them and the State of Great 
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and 
that, as free and independent States, they have full 
power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alli- 
ances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts 
and things which independent States may of right 
do. And for the support of this declaration, with a 



16 



KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 



firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our 
fortunes, and our sacred honor. 

Signed by order and in behalf of the Congress. 

JOHN HANCOCK, President 
Attested, Charles Thompson, Secretary, 



NEW HAMPSHIEE. 

Josiah Bartlett, 
Williaai Whipple, 
Matthew Taornton. 

MASSACHUSETTS BAT. 

Samuel Adams, 
John Adams, 
Robert Treat Paine, 
Eldridge Gerry. 

EHODE ISLAND, ETC. 

Stephen Hopkins, 
Wiiham Eller/. 

CONNECTICUT. 

Roger Sherman, 
Samuel Huntington, 
William Williams, 
Oliver Wolcott. 

NEW TOEK. 

William Floyd, 
Philip Livingston, 
Francis Lewis, 
Lewis Morris. 

NEW JF.KSEY. 

Richard Stockton, 
John Witherspoon, 
Francis Hopkinson, 
John Hart, 
Abraham Clark. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 

Robert Morris, 
Benjamin Rush, 
Benjamin Franklin, 
John Morton, 
George Clymer, 
James Smith, 
George Taylor, 
James Wilson, 
George Ross. 

DELAWAEE. 

Caesar Rodney, 
George Read, 
Thomas M'Kean. 

MAEYLAND. 

Samuel Chase, 
William Paca, 
Thomas Stone, 
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. 

VIEGINIA. 

George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, 
Thomas Jefferson, 
Benjamin Harrison, 
Thomas Nelson, jr., 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 



ir 



NOETH OAEOLINA. 

William Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, 
John Penn. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Edward Rutledge, 



Thomas Hey ward, jr., 
Thomas L)mch, jr., 
Arthur Middleton. 

GEORGIA. 

Button Gwinnett, 
Lyman Hall, 
George Walton. 



18 KET-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



We, the People of tlie United States, in order to form a more 
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillit}-, 
provide for the common defence, promote the general wel- 
fare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 
United States of America. 

ARTICLE 1, 

§ I. — All legislative powers herein granted shall 
be vested in a Congress of the United States, which 
shall consist of a Senate and House of Representa- 
tives. 

§ II. — 1. The House of Eepresentatives shall be 
composed of members chosen every second year by 
the people of the several States ; and the electors in 
each State shall have the qualifications requisite for 
electors of the most numerous branch of the State 
legislature. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 19 

2. No person shall be a representative who shall 
not have attained the age of twentj-five years, and 
been seven years a citizen of the United States, and 
who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of the 
State in which he shall be chosen. 

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be appor- 
tioned among the several States which may be 
inchided within this Union, according to their 
respective numbers, which shall be determined by 
adding to the whole number of free persons, includ- 
ing those bound to service for a term of years, and 
excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other 
persons. The actual enumeration shall be made 
within three years after the first meeting of the Con- 
gress of the United States, and within every subse- 
quent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall 
by law direct. The number of representatives shall 
not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each 
State shall have at least one representative ; and 
until such enumeration shall be made, the State of 
New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three ; 
MassachiiseUs^ eight ; Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations^ one ; Connecticut, ^nq ; New Yorh, 
six ; New Jersey^ four ; Pennsylvania, eight ; Dela- 
ware, one ; Maryland, six ; Virginia, ten ; North 
Carolina, five ; South Carolina, five ; Georgia, three. 
4. When vacancies happen in the representation 



20 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LEBEETT. 

of any State, the executive authority thereof shall 
issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

5. The House of Kepresentatives shall choose 
their speaker and other officers, and shall have the 
sole power of impeachment. 

§ III.— 1. The Senate of the United States shall 
be composed of two senators from each State, chosen 
by the legislature thereof, for six years ; and each 
senator shall have one vote. 

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in 
consequence of the first election, they shall be divi- 
ded, as equally as may be, into three classes. The 
seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated 
at the expiration of the second year, of the second 
class at the expiration of the fourth year, and the 
third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that 
one third may be chosen every second year ; and if 
vacancies happen, by resignation or otherwise, during 
the recess of the legislature of any State, the execu- 
tive thereof may make temporary appointments until 
the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then 
fill such vacancies. 

3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not 
have attained the age of thirty years, and been nine 
years a citizen of the United States, and who shall 
not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for 
which he shall be chosen. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE TINITED STATES. 21 

4. The Yice-President of the United States shall 
be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, 
unless thej be equally divided. 

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, 
and also a president pro tempore in the absence of 
the Yice-President, or when he shall exercise the 
office of President of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try 
all impeachments. "When sitting for that purpose, 
they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the 
President of , the United States is tried, the chief 
justice shall preside ; and no person shall be con- 
victed without the concurrence of two-thirds of the 
members present. 

7. Judgment, in cases of impeachment, shall not 
extend further than to removal from office, and dis- 
qualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, 
trust, or profit under the United States; but the 
party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and 
subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punish- 
ment, according to law. 

§ lY. — 1. The times, places, and manner of hold- 
ing elections for Senators and representatives shall 
be prescribed in each State by the legislature 
thereof; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, 
make or alter such regulations, except as to the 
places of choosing senators. 



22 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in 
every year ; and such meeting shall be on the first 
Monday in December, unless they shall by law ap- 
point a different day. 

§ Y. — 1. Each house shall be judge of the elec- 
tions, returns, and qualifications of its own members ; 
and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to 
do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn 
from day to day, and may be authorized to compel 
the attendance of absent members, in such manner 
and under such penalties as each house may provide. 

2. Each house may determine the rules of its 
proceedings, punish its members for disorderly be- 
havior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel 
a member. 

3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceed- 
ings, and from time to time publish the same, 
excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, 
require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the mem- 
bers of either house on any question shall, at the 
desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the 
journal. 

4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, 
shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for 
more than three days, nor to any other place than 
that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 

§ YI. — 1. The senators and representatives shall 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 23 

receive a compensation for their services, to be ascer- 
tained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the 
United States. They shall, in all cases except 
treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privi- 
leged from arrest during their attendance at the 
session of their respective houses, and in going to or 
returning from the same ; and for any speech or 
debate in either house they shall not be questioned 
in any other place. 

2. 1^0 senator or representative shall, during the 
time for which he was elected, be appointed to any 
civil office under the authority of the United States 
which shall have been created, or the emoluments 
whereof shall have been increased, during such time ; 
and no person holding any office under the United 
States shall be a member of either house during his 
continuance in office. 

§ yil. — 1. All bills for raising revenue shall 
originate in the House of Representatives ; but the 
Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as 
on other bills. 

2. Every bill which shall have passed the House 
of Representatives and the Senate shall, before i't 
becomes a law, be presented to the President of the 
United States ; if he approve, he shall sign it ; but 
if not, he shall return it with his objections, to that 
house in which it shall have originated, who shall 



24 KET-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTT. 

enter the objections at large on their journal, and 
proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsidera- 
ation, two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the 
bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to 
the other house ; and if approved by two-thirds of 
that house it shall become a law. But in all such 
cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by 
yeas and nays ; and the name of the persons voting 
for and against the bill shall be entered on the jour- 
nals of each house respectively. If any bill shall not 
be returned by the President within ten days (Sun- 
days excepted) after it shall have been presented to 
him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he 
had signed it, unless Congress, by their adjournment, 
prevent its return ; in which case it shall not be a 
law. 

3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the 
concurrence of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives may be necessary (except on a question of 
adjournment) shall be presented to the President of 
the United States, and before the same shall take 
effect shall be approved by him, or, being disap- 
proved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the 
Senate and House of Pepresentatives, according to 
the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a 
bill. 

§ YIII. — The Congress shall have power — 



C0N3TITUTI0N OF THE UNITED STATES. 25 

1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and 
excises ; to pay the debts and provide for the com- 
mon defence and general welfare of the United 
States ; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be 
uniform throughout the United States : 

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United 
States : 

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, 
and among the several States, and with the Indian 
tribes : 

4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, 
and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies, 
throughout the United States : 

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and 
of foreign coin, and '£ix the standard of weights and 
measures ; 

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeit- 
ing the securities and current coin of the United 
States : 

7. To establish post offices and post roads : 

8. To promote the progress of science and useful 
arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors and 
inventors the exclusive right to their respective writ- 
ings and discoveries : 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme 
Court : 

10. To define and punish pira,cies and felonies 

2 



26 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

committed on the higli seas, and offences against tlie 
law of nations : 

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and 
reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land 
and water : 

12. To raise and support armies ; but no appro- 
priation of money to that use shall be for a longer 
term than two years : 

13. To provide and maintain a navy : 

14. To make rules for the government and reg- 
ulation of the land and naval forces : 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to 
execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, . 
and repel invasions 

16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disci- 
plining the miKtia, and for governing such part of 
them as may be employed in the service of the 
United States, reserving to the States respectively the 
appointment of the officers, and the authority of 
training the militia, according to the discipline pre- 
scribed by Congress : 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases 
whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten 
miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, 
and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of 
government of the United States, and to exercise like 
authority over all places purchased by the consent of 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 27 

the legislature of the State in which the same shall 
be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock 
yards, and other needful building : And, 

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary 
and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing 
powers, and all other powers vested by this Consti- 
tution in the government of the United States, or in 
any department or officer thereof. 

§ IX. — 1. The migration or importation of such 
persons as any of the States, now existing, shall think 
proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Con- 
gress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred 
and eight; but a tax or duty may be imposed on 
such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each 
person. 

2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of re- 
bellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. 

3. 'No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, shall 
be passed. 

4. JSTo capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, 
unless in proportion to the census or enumeration 
herein before directed to be taken. 

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles ex- 
ported from any States. No preference shall be 
given, by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to 
the ports of one State over those of another ; nor 



28 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

shall vessels bound to or from one State be obliged 
to enter, clear, cr pay duties in another. 

6. Ko money shall be drawn from the treasury 
but in consequence of appropriations made by law ; 
and a regular statement and account of the receipts 
and expenditurss of all public money shall be pub- 
lished from time to time. 

7. 'No title of nobility shall be granted by the 
United States ; and no person holding any office of 
profit or trust under them shall, without the consent 
of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, 
office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, 
prince, or foreign State. 

§ X. — 1. Ko state shall enter into any treaty, 
alliance, or confederation ; grant letters of marque 
and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; 
make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in 
payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post 
facto law, or impairing the obligation of contracts ; 
or grant any title of nobility. 

2. No State shall, without the consent of Con- 
gress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or 
exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for 
executing its inspection laws ; and the net produce 
of all duties and imposts laid by any State on im- 
ports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury 
of the United States ; and all such laws shall be 



CONSTITTTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 29 

subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 
No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay 
any duty on tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in 
time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact 
with another State or with a foreign power, or 
engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such 
imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE n. 

§ I. — 1. The executive power shall be vested in a 
President of the United States of America. He 
shall hold his office during the term of four years, 
and, together with the Yice-President, chosen for the 
same term, be elected as follows : 

2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as 
the legislature thereof may direct, a number of elec- 
tors, equal to the whole number of senators and 
representatives to which the State may be entitled in 
the Congress ; but no senator or representative, or 
person holding an office of trust or profit under the 
United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

3. [Annulled. See Amendments, Art. 12.] 

4. The Congress may determine the time of 
choosing the electors, and the day on which they 
shall give their votes, which day shall be the same 
throughout the United States. 



30 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

5. Kg person except a natural-born citizen, or a 
citizen of the United States at the time of the adop- 
tion of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office 
of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to 
that office who shall not have attained the age of 
thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident 
within the United States. 

6. In case of the removal of the President from 
office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to dis- 
charge the powers and duties of said office, the same 
shall devolve on the Yice-President ; and the Con- 
gress may by law provide for the case of removal, 
death, resignation, or inability both of the President 
and Yice-President, declaring what officer shall then 
act as President, and such officer shall act accord- 
ingly, until the disability be removed, or a President 
shall be elected. 

7. The President shall, at stated times, receive 
for his services a compensation which shall neither 
be increased nor diminished during the period for 
which he shall have been elected ; and he shall not 
receive, within that period, any other emolument- 
from the United States, or any of them. 

8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, 
he shall take the following oath or affirmation : — 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will 
faithfully execute the office of President of the 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 31 

United States, and will, to the best of my ability, 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the 
United States." 

§ II. — 1. The President shall be commander-in- 
chief of the army and navy of the United States, and 
of the militia of the several States, when called into 
the actual service of the United States : he may 
require the opinion, in writing, of the principal 
officer in each of the executive departments upon 
any subject relating to the duties of their respective 
offices ; and he shall have power to grant reprieves 
and pardons for offences against the United States, 
except in cases of impeachment. 

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided 
two-thirds of the Senators present concur ; and he 
shall nominate, and by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate shall appoint, ambassadors, 
other public ministers, and consuls, judges of the 
Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United 
States whose appointments are not herein otherwise 
provided for, and which shall be established by law. 
But the Congress may, by law, vest the appointment 
of such inferior officers as they think proper in the 
President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads 
of departments. 

3. The President shall have power to fill up all 



32 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBEETT. 

vacancies that may happen during the recess of the 
Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire 
at the end of the next session. 

§ III. — He shall, from time to time, give to the 
Congress information of the state of the Union, and 
recommend to their consideration such measures as 
he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on 
extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or 
either of them, and in case of disagreement between 
them with respect to the time of adjournment, he 
may adjourn them to such time as he shall think 
proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public 
ministers ; he shall take care that the laws are faith- 
fully executed ; and shall commission all the officers 
of the United States. 

§ lY. — The President, Vice-President, and all 
civil officers of the United States, shall be removed 
from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, 
treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misde- 
meanors. 

ARTICLE ra. 

§ I. — The judicial power of the United States 
shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such 
inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to 
time, ordain and establish. ' The judges, both of the 
Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices 



COFSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 33 

during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, 
receive for their servicss a compensation which shall 
not be diminislied during their continuance in office. 
§ II. — 1. The judicial power shall extend to all 
cases in law and equity arising under this Constitu- 
tion, the laws of the United States, and treaties 
made, or which shall be made under their authority ; 
to all cases affecting ambassadors, and other public 
ministers, and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and 
maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the 
United States shall be a party ; to controversies be- 
tween two or more States; between a State and 
citizens of another State ; between citizens of differ- 
ent States ; between citizens of the same State, 
claiming lands under grants of different States, and 
between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign 
States, citizens, or subjects. 

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public 
ministers, and consuls, and those in which a State 
iihall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have orig- 
inal jurisdiction. In all other cases before men- 
tioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate 
jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such ex- 
ceptions, and under such regulations, as the Congress 
shall make. 

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of im- 
peachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be 

2* 



34 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

held in the State where such crimes shall have been 
committed ; but when not committed within any 
State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the 
Congress may by law have directed. 

§ III. — 1. Treason against the United States 
shall consist only in levying war against them, or in 
adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and com- 
fort 'No person shall be convicted of treason, unless 
on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt 
act, or confessions in open court. 

2. The Congress shall have power to declare the 
punishment of treason ; but no attainder of treason 
shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except 
during the life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

§ I. — Full faith and credit shall be given in each 
State to the public acts, records, and judicial pro- 
ceedings of every other State. And the Congress 
may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which 
such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, 
and the effect thereof 

§ II. — 1. The citizens of each State shall be en- 
titled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in 
the several States. 

2. A person charged in any State with treason, 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 35 

felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, 
and be found in another State, shall, on demand of 
the executive authority of the State from which he 
fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State 
having jurisdiction of the crime. 

3. 'No person held to service or labor in one 
State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, 
shall, in consequence of any law or regulation 
therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but 
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom 
such service or labor may be due. 

§ III. — 1. New States may be admitted by the 
Congress into this "Union ; but no new State shall 
shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of 
any other State; nor any State be formed by the 
junction of two or more States, or parts of States, 
without the consent of the legislature of the States 
concerned, as well as of the Congress. 

2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of 
and make all needful rules and regulations respecting 
the territory or other property belonging to the 
United States ; and nothing in this Constitution 
shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of 
the United States, or of any particular State. 

§ lY. — The United States shall guaranty to every 
State of this Union a republican form of government, 
and shall protect each of them against invasion, and, 



36 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

on application of tlie legislature, or of the executive, 
(when the legislature cannot be convened,) against 
domestic violence. 

AETICLE V. 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both 
houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amend- 
ments to this Constitution, or, on the application of 
the legislatures of two-tliirds of the several States, 
shall call a convention for proposing amendments, 
which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and 
purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratitied 
by the legislatures of three-fourths of the severed 
States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as 
the one or the other mode of ratification may be pro- 
posed by the Congress ; provided that no amend- 
ment which may be made prior to the year one 
thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any 
manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the nintli 
section of the first article; and that no State, with- 
out its consent, shall be deprived of its equal 
suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

1. All debts contracted, and engagements entered 
into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall 
be as valid against the Uuited States under thi:^ 
Constitution as under the confederation. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 37 

2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United 
States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and 
all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the 
authority of the United States, shall be the supreme 
law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall 
be bound thereby ; any thing in the Constitution or 
laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

3. The senators and representatives before men- 
tioned, and the members of the several State legisla- 
tures, and all executive and all judicial officers, both 
of the United States and of the several States, shall 
be bound by oath or affirmation to support this 
Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be 
required as a qualification to any office or public 
trust under the United States. 

ARTICLE VII. 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States 
F.hail be sufficient for the establishment of this Con- 
stitution between the States so ratifying the same. 

Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States 
present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the 
twelfth. In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed 
our names. 

GEOKGE WASHINGTON, 
President, and Deputy from Virginia. 



38 



KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

John Langdon, 
Nicholas Giiman. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Nathaniel Gorham, 
Rufus King. 

CONNECTICUT. 

Wm. Samuel Johnson, 
Roger Sherman. 

NEW TOEK. 

Alexander Hamilton, 

NEW JERSEY. 

William Livingston, 
David Brearley, 
William Patterson, 
Jonathan Dayton. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Benjamin Franklin, 
Thomas Miflain, 
Robert Morris, 
George Clymer, 
Thomas Fitzsimons, 
Jared IngersoU, 
James Wilson, 
Gouvemeur Morris. 



DELAWAEE. 

George Read, 
Gunning Bedford, jr., 
John Dickinson, 
Richard Bassett, 
Jacob Broom. 

MARYLAND. 

James McHenry, 

Daniel of St. Tho. Jenifer, 

Daniel Carroll. 

VIRGINIA. 

John Blair, 
James Madison, jr. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

William Blount, 
Rich. Dobbs Spaight, 
Hugh Wilhamson. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

John Rutledge, 
Charles C. Pinckney, 
Charles Pinckney, 
Pierce Butler. 

GEORGIA. 

William Few, 
Abraham Baldwin. 



Attest, William Jackson, Secretary^ 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 39 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 



Art. I. — Congress shall make no law respecting 
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free 
exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably 
to assemble and to petition the government for a 
redress of grievances. 

Art. II. — A well-regulated militia being neces- 
sary to the security of a free State, the right of the 
people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 

Art. III.— No soldier shall, in time of peace, be 
quartered in any house without the consent of the 
owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be 
prescribed by law. 

Art. IY. — The right of the people to be secure 
in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against 
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be 
violated ; and no warrants shall issue but upon 



40 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTT. 

probable cause, supported bj oath or affirmation, 
and particularly describing the place to be searched, 
and the persons or things to be seized. 

Akt. Y. — 'No person shall be held to answer for 
a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a 
presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the 
militia when in actual service, in time of war or 
public danger ; nor shall any person be subject for 
the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life 
or limb; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal 
case, to be witness against himself, nor be deprived 
of life, liberty, or property, without due process of 
law ; nor shall private property be taken for public 
use without just compensation. 

Aet. YI. — In all criminal prosecutions, the ac- 
cused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public 
trial by an impartial jury of the State and district 
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which 
district shall have been previously ascertained by 
law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of 
the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses 
against him ; to have compulsory process for obtain- 
ing witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance 
of counsel for his defence. 

Aet. YII. — In suits of common law, where the 
value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 41 

right of trial bj jury shall be preserved ; and no fact, 
tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in 
any court of the United States than according to the 
rules of the common law. 

Aet. YIII. — Excessive bail shall not be required, 
nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual 
punishments inflicted. 

Akt. IX. — The enumeration in the Constitution 
of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or 
disparage others retained by the people. 

Akt. X. — The powers not delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to 
the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or 
to the people. 

Art. XI. — The judicial power of the United 
States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in 
law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one 
of th6 United S.tates by citizens of another State, or 
by citizens or subjects of any foreign State. 

Art. XII. — The electors shall meet in their 
respective States, and vote by ballot for President 
and Yice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not 
be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; 
they shall name in their ballots the person voted for 
as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted 
for as Yice-President ; and they shall make distinct 
lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all 



42 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTT. 

persons voted for as Yiee-President, and of the 
number of votes for each; which lists they shall sign 
and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of gov- 
ernment of the United States, directed to the presi- 
dent of the Senate. The president of the Senate 
shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, open all the certificates, and the 
votes shall then be counted ; the person having the 
greatest number of votes for President shall be 
President, if such number be a majority of the whole 
number of electors appointed ; and if no person have 
such a majority, then from the persons having the 
highest number, not exceeding three, on the list of 
those voted for as President, the House of Eepresen 
tatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the 
President. But, in choosing the President, the votes 
shall be taken by States, the representation from 
each State having one vote ; a quorum for this pur- 
pose shall consist of a member or members from two 
thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States 
shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of 
Representatives shall not choose a President, when- 
ever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, 
before the fourth day of March next following, then 
the Yice-President shall act as President, as in the 
case of the death or other constitutional disability of 
the President. 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITTJTION. 43 

2. The person having the greatest number of 
votes as Yice-President shall be the Yice-President, 
if such number be a majority of the whole number 
of electors appointed ; and if no person have a ma- 
jority, then from the two highest numbers on the 
list the Senate shall choose the Yice-President; a 
quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of 
the whole number of senators, and a majority of the 
whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 

3, But no person constitutionally ineligible to 
the office of President shall be eligible to that of 
Yice-President of the United States. 



44 KET-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 



Article Y. of the Constitution of the United 
States clearly and distinctly sets forth the mode and 
manner in which that instrument may be amended, 
as follows : 

" The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both 
Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amend- 
ments to this Constitution, or, on the application of 
the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, 
shall call a convention for proposing amendments, 
which in either case shall be valid to all intents and 
purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified 
by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several 
States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as 
the one or the other mode of ratification may be pro- 
posed by the Congress." 

In accordance with this article of the Constitu- 
tion, the following resolution was proposed in the 
Senate, on February 1, 1864, adopted April 8, 1864, by 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 45 

a vote of 38 to 6, and was proposed in the House June 
15, 1864, adopted Jan. 31, 1865, by a vote of 119 to 56 : 

Resolved^ Bj the Senate and House of Represen- 
tatives of tlie United States of America, in CongretS 
assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that 
the following article be proposed to the Legislatures, 
of the several States, as an amendment to the consti- 
tution of the United States, which, when ratified by 
three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid to all 
intents and purposes, as apart of the said Constitution, 
namely : 

Art. XIII. 1st. l^either slavery nor involuntary 
servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof 
the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist 
within the United States, or any place subject to 
their jurisdiction. 

The amendment was now sent by the Secretary of 
State \^ th-e Governors of the several States for rati- 
fication by the Legislatures ; a majority vote in three- 
fourths being required to make it a law of the land. 

On Dec. 18, 1865, Secretary Seward officially 
announced to the country the ratification of the 
Amendment as follows : 

To all to wJiom these presents may come^ Greeting : 

Know ye^ That, whereas the Congress of the 

United States, on the 1st of February last, passed a 

resolution, which is in the words following, namely : 



4:6 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTT. 

"A resolution submitting to the Legislatures of 
the several States a proposition to amend the Con- 
stitution of the United States." 

'* Resolved^ By the Senate and House of Eepre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in 
Congress assembled, tw.o-thirds of both Houses 
concurring, that the following article be proposed to 
the Legislatures of the several States as an Amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States, 
which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legisla- 
tures, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a 
part of said Constitution, namely : 

"* Article XUL 

" ' Section 1. ^Neither slavery nor involuntary 
servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof 
the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist 
within the United States, or any place subject 
to their jurisdiction. • 

" ^ Section 2. Congress shall have power to 
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.' " 

And whereas^ It appears from official documents 
on file in this Department, that the Amendment to 
the Constitution of the United States proposed as 
aforesaid, has been ratified by the Legislatures of the 
States of Illinois, Rhode Island, Michigan, Mary- 
land, New York, West Virginia, Maine, Kansas, 
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Mis- 



THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 47 

souri, l^evada, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, 
Wisconsin, Yermont, Tennessee, Arkansas, Connecti- 
cut, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Alabama, 
!N'orth Carolina, and Georgia, in all 27 States. 

A7id whereas, The whole number of States in the 
United States is 36. 

A7id whereas, The before specially named States, 
whose Legislatures have ratified the said proposed 
Amendment, constitute three-fourths of the whole 
number of States in the United States : 

E'ow, therefore, be it known that I, William H. 
Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, by 
virtue and in pursuance of the second section of the 
act of Congress, approved the 20th of April, 1818, 
entitled " An act to provide for the publication of 
the laws of the United States, and for other pur- 
poses," do hereby certify that the Amendment afore- 
said has become valid to all intents and purposes as 
a part of the Constitution of the United States. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my 
hand and caused the seal of the Department of State 
to be affixed. 

Done at the City of Washington, this 18th day 
of December, in the year of our Lord 1865, and of 
the Independence of the United States of America 
the 90th. 

Wm. H. Sewaed, Secretary of State. 



48 KEY-NOTES OF AMBEICAN LIBBETT. 



PROPOSED AMENDMENTS. 

ADOPTED BY C0NGEE8S JUNE 13tH, 1866, AND WHEN EATIFIED 
BY TWO-THIRDS OF THE LEGISLATURES BECOMES A PART OF 
THE CONSTITUTION. 

The joint resolution as passed is as follows : 
Resolved, Bj the Senate and House of Eepresen- 
tatives of the United States of America, in Congress 
assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses concurring), 
That the following article be proposed to the Legis- 
latures of the several States, as an amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States, which, when rati- 
fied by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be 
valid as part of the Constitution, namely : 

ARTICLE — . 

§ 1. All persons born or naturalized in the 
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, 
are citizens of the United States and the States 
wherein they reside. No State shall make or 



PROPOSED AMENDMENTS. 49 

enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or 
immunities of citizens of the United States ; nor 
shall anj State deprive any person of life, liberty or 
happiness, without due process of law, nor deny to 
any person within its jurisdiction the equal protec- 
tion of the laws. 

§ 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among 
the several States according to their respective num- 
bers, counting the whole number of persons, exclud- 
ing Indians not taxed. But whenever the right to 
vote at any election for the choice of electors for 
President and Yice-President, representatives in 
Congress, executive and judicial officers, or members 
of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the 
male inhabitants of such State, being 21 years of 
age, and citizens of the United States, or in anyway 
abridged, except for participation in rebellion or 
other crime, the basis of representation therein shall 
be reduced in the proportion which the number of 
Buch male citizens shall bear to the whole number of 
male citizens 21 years of age in such State. 

§ 3. That no person shall be a Senator or Repre- 
sentative in Congress, or elector of President and 
Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, 
under the United States, or under any State, who, 
having previously taken an oath as a member of 
Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as 



50 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEKTY. 

a member of any State Legislature, or as an execu- 
tive or judicial officer of any State, to support the 
Constitution of the United States, shall have 
engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the 
same, or given aid and comfort to the enemies there- 
of. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of 
each House, remove such disabilities. 

§ 4. The validity of the public debt of the 
United States authorized by law, including debts 
incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for 
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, 
shall not be questioned. But neither the United 
States or any State shall assume or pay any debt or 
obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion 
against the United States, or any claim for the loss 
or emancipation of any slave ; but all such debts, 
obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and 
void. 

§ 6. The Congress shall have power to enforce, 
by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this 
article. 



THE OBDmANCE OF 178Y. 51 



THE OKDmANOE OF 1787. 

Passed hy Congress previous to the Adoption of the New Consti- 
tution, and subsequently adopted by Congress, Aug. 7, 1789, 
entitled, "An Ordinance for the Government of the Terri- 
tory of the United States north-west of the River OhioP 

(All the Articles of this ordmance, previous to Article VL, 
relate to the organization and powers of the government of the 
territory, the following section being all that relates to slavery.) 

AKTICLE VI. 

There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary 

servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in 

punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have 

been duly convicted : Provided always, that any 

person escaping into the same, from whom labor or 

service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original 

States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and 

conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or 

service, as aforesaid. 

Done by the United States in Congress assembled 
the thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord 
1787, and of the sovereignty and Independence 
the twelfth. 

William Grayson, Chairmav. 

Charles Thompson, Secretary, 



52 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 



THE rUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1793. 



An Act res^pecting Fugitives from Justice, and 
Persons escaping from the Service of their 
Masters, 

Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in Con- 
gress assemhled, That whenever the executive 
authority of any State in the Union, or of either of 
the territories north-west or south of the Kiver Ohio, 
shall demand any person, as a fugitive from justice, 
of the executive authority of any such State or Terri- 
tory to which such person shall have fled, and shall, 
moreover, produce the copy of an indictment found, 
or an affidavit made before a magistrate of any State 
(jr Territory as aforesaid, charging the person so 
demanded with having committed treason, felony, or 
other crime, certified as authentic by the governor or 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1793. 53 

cliief magistrate of the State or Territory from 
whence the person so charged fled, it shall be the 
duty of the executive authority of the State or Terri- 
tory to which such person shall have fled, to cause 
him or her to be arrested and secured, and notice of 
the arrest to be given to the executive authority 
making such demand, or to the agent of such 
authority appointed to receive the fugitive, and to 
cause the fugitive to be delivered to such agent 
when he shall appear. But if no such agent shall 
appear within six months from the time of the arrest, 
the prisoner may be discharged. And all costs or 
expenses incurred in the apprehending, securing, and 
transmitting such fugitive to the State or Territory 
making such demand, shall be paid by such State or 
Territory. 

And he it further enacted^ That any agent 
appointed as aforesaid, who shall receive the fugitive 
into his custody, shall be empowered to transport 
him or her to the State or Territory from which he 
or she shall have fled. And if any person or persons 
shall by force set at liberty or rescue the fugitive 
from such agent while transporting as aforesaid, the 
person or persons so ofi*ending shall, on conviction, 
be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, and be 
imprisoned not exceeding one year. 

And he it also enacted^ That when a person held 



54 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEKTY. 

to labor in any of the United States, or in either of 
the Territories on the north-west or south of the 
River Ohio, under the laws thereof, shall escape into 
any other of the said States or Territory, the person 
to whom such labor or service may be due, his agent 
or attorney, is hereby empowered to seize or arrest 
such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her 
before any judge of the Circuit or District Courts of 
the United States, residing or being within the 
State, or before any magistrate of a county, city, or 
town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall 
be made, and upon proof to the satisfaction of such 
judge or magistrate, either by oral testimony or affi- 
davit taken before, and certified by, a magistrate of 
any such State or Territory, that the person so 
seized or arrested doth, under the laws of the State 
or Territory from which he or she fled, owe services 
or labor to tlie person claiming him or her, it shall 
be the duty of such judge or magistrate to give a 
certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent or 
attorney, which shall be sufiicient warrant for remov- 
^ing the said fugitive from labor to the State or 
Territory from which he or she fled. 

And he it further enacted^ That any person who 
shall knowingly and willingly obstruct or hinder 
such claimant, his agent or attornej^ in so seizing or 
arresting such fugitive from labor, or shall rescue 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850. 55 

Buch fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attor- 
ney, when so arrested pursuant to the authority 
herein given or declared, or shall harbor or conceal 
such person after notice that he or she was a fugitive 
from labor as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said 
offences, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred 
dollars. Which penalty may be recovered by and 
for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt, in 
any court proper to try the same ; saving, moreover, 
to the person claiming such labor or service, his 
right of action for or on account of the said injuries, 
or either of them. 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850. 

SIGNED 8EPTEMBEE 18, 1850. 

An Act to amend, and supplementary to the Act 
entitled ''An Act respecting Fugitives from 
Justice^ and Persons escaping from the Service of 
their Masters^'^ approved Februa/ry twelfth, one 
thousa/nd seven hundred and ninety-three. 

Be it enacted ly the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in 
Congress assembled, That the persons who have been, 
or may hereafter be, appointed commissioners, in 



00 BLEY-NOTES OF AMEKICAN LIBEETT. 

virtue of any act of Congress, by the Circuit Courts 
of the United States^ and who, in consequence of such 
appointment, are authorized to exercise the powers 
that any justice of the peace, or other magistrate of 
any of the United States, may exercise in respect to 
oflenders for any crime or offence against the United 
States, by arresting, imprisoning, or bailing the 
same under and by virtue of the thirty-third section 
of the act of the twenty-fourth of September, seven- 
teen hundred and eighty-nine, entitled " An Act to 
estabhsh the judicial courts of the United States," 
shall be, and are hereby, authorized and required to 
exercise and discharge all the powers and duties 
conferred by this act. 

And he it further enacted^ That the Superior 
Court of each organized Territory of the United 
States shall have the same power to appoint commis- 
sioners to take acknowledgments of bail and affi- 
davits, and to take depositions of witnesse-s in civil 
causes, which is now possessed by the Circuit Court 
of the United States ; and all commissioners who 
shall hereafter be appointed for such purposes by the 
Supreme Court of any organized Territory of the 
United States, shall possess all the powers, and exer- 
cise all the duties, conferred by law upon the 
commissioners appointed by the Circuit Courts of 
the United States for similar purposes, and shall 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850. 67 

moreover exercise and discharge all the powers and 
duties conferred by this act. 

And he it further enacted^ That the Circuit 
Courts of the United States, and the Superior Courts 
of each organized Territory of the United States, 
shall from time to time enlarge the number of com- 
missioners, with a view to afford reasonable facilities 
to reclaim fugitives from labor, and to the prompt 
discharge of the duties imposed by this act. 

And he it further enacted^ That the commis- 
sioners above named shall have concurrent jurisdic- 
tion with the judges of the Circuit and District 
Courts of the United States, in their respective 
circuits and districts within the several States, and 
the judges of the Superior Courts of the Territories 
severally and collectively, in term time and vaca- 
tion ; and shall grant certificates to such claimants 
upon satisfactory proof being made, with authority 
to take and remove such fugitives from service or 
labor, under the restrictions herein contained, to the 
State or Territory from which such persons may 
have escaped or fled. 

And he it further enacted^ That it shall be the 
duty of all marshals and deputy marshals to obey 
and execute all warrants and precepts issued under 
the provisions of this act, when to them directed ; 
and should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to 
3* 



58 KEY-NOTES OP AMEEIOAN LIBERTT. 

receive such warrant, or other process, when tend- 
ered, or to use all proper means diligently to 
execute the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, 
be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars, to the 
use of such claimant, on the motion of such claimant, 
by the Circuit or District Court for the district of 
such marshal ; and after arrest of such fugitive, by 
such marshal or his deputy, or whilst at any time in 
his custody, under the provisions of this act, should 
such fugitive escape, whether with or without the as- 
sent of such marshal or his deputy, such marshal shall 
be liable, on his official bond, to be prosecuted for 
the benefit of such claimant, for the full value of the 
service or labor of said fugitive in the State, Terri- 
tory, or district whence lie escaped ; and the better 
to enable said commissioners, when thus appointed, 
to execute their duties faithfully and efficiently, in 
conformity with the requirements of the constitution 
of the United States, and of this act, they are hereby 
authorized and empowered, within their counties 
respectively, to appoint, in writing under their 
hands, any one or more suitable persons, from time 
to time, to execute all such warrants and other pro- 
cess as may be issued by them in the lawful 
performance of their respective duties ; with 
authority to such commissioners, or the persons to be 
appointed by them, to execute process as aforesaid, 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850. 69 

to summon and call to their aid the bystanders, or 
jposse comitatus of the proper county, when necessary 
to insure a faithful observance of the clause of the 
constitution referred to, in conformity with the pro- 
visions of this act ; and all good citizens are hereby 
commanded to aid and assist in the prompt and effi- 
cient execution of this law, whenever their services 
may be required, as aforesaid, for that purpose ; and 
said warrants shall run, and be executed by said 
officers, any where in the State within which they 
are issued. 

And he it further enacted^ That when a person 
held to service or labor in any State or Territory of 
the United States has heretofore or shall hereafter 
escape into another State or Territory of the United 
States, the person or persons to whom such service 
or labor may be due, or his, her, or their agent or 
attorney, duly authorized by power of attorney, in 
writing acknowledged and certified under the seal of 
some legal officer or court of the State or Territory 
in which the same may be executed, may pursue and 
reclaim such fugitive person, either by procuring a 
warrant from some one of the courts, judges, or com- 
missioners aforesaid, of the proper circuit, district, or 
county, for the apprehension of such fugitive from 
service or labor, or by seizing and arresting such 
fugitive where the same can be done without pro- 



60 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

cesSj and by taking, or causing sucli person to be 
taken forthwith before such court, judge, or commis- 
sioner, whose duty it shall be to hear and determine 
the case of such claimant in a summary manner ; 
and upon satisfactory proof being made, by deposi- 
tion or affidavit, in writing, to be taken and certified 
by such court, judge, or commissioner, or by other 
satisfactory testimony, duly taken and certified by 
some court, magistrate, justice of the peace, or other 
legal officer authorized to administer an oath and 
take depositions under the laws of the State or Terri- 
tory from which such person owing service or labor 
may have escaped, with a certificate of such magis- 
tracy, or other authority as aforesaid, with the seal 
of the proper court or officer thereto attached, which 
seal shall be sufficient to establish the competency of 
the proof, also by affidavit, of the identity of the per- 
son whose service or labor is claimed to be due as 
aforesaid, that the person so arrested does in fact 
owe service or labor to the person or persons claim- 
ing him or her, in the State or Territory from which 
such fugitive may have escaped as aforesaid, and 
that said person escaped, to make out and deliver to 
such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, a certifi- 
cate setting forth the substantial facts as to the 
service or labor due from such fugitive to the claim- 
ant, and of his or her escape from the State or 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850. 61 

Territory in which such service or labor was dne to 
the State or Territory in which he or she was 
arrested, with authority to such claimant, or his or 
her agent or attorney, to use such reasonable force 
and restraint as may be necessary, under the circum- 
stances of the case, to take and remove such fugitive 
person back to the State or Territory whence he or 
she may have escaped as aforesaid. In no trial or 
hearing under this act shall the testimony of such 
alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence ; and the 
certificates in this and the first (fourth) section men- 
tioned, shall be conclusive of the right of the person 
or persons in whose favor granted, to remove such 
fugitive to the State or Territory from which he 
escaped, and shall prevent all molestation of such 
person or persons by any process issued by any court, 
judge, magistrate, or other person whomsoever. 

And he it further enacted^ That any person who 
shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or 
prevent such claimant, his agent or attorney, or any 
person or persons lawfully assisting him, her, or 
them, from arresting such a fugitive from service or 
labor, either with or without process as aforesaid, or 
shall rescue or attempt to rescue such fugitive from 
service or labor from the custody of such claimant, 
his or her agent or attorney, or other person or 
persons lawfully assisting as aforesaid, when 



O^ KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBEETY. 

SO arrested pursuant to the authority herein given 
and declared, or shall aid, abet, or assist such person 
go owing service or labor as aforesaid, directly or 
indirectly, to escape from such claimant, his agent or 
attorney, or other person or persons legally author- 
ized as aforesaid, or shall harbor or conceal such 
fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of 
such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact 
that such person was a fugitive from service or labor 
as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offences, be 
subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, 
and imprisonment not exceeding six months, by 
indictment and conviction before the District Court 
of the United States for the district in which such 
offence may have been committed, or before the 
proper court of criminal jurisdiction, if committed 
within any one of the organized Territories of the 
United States, and shall moreover forfeit and pay, 
by way of civil damages to the party injured by such 
illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars for 
each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be recovered by 
action of debt in any of the district or territorial 
courts aforesaid, within whose jurisdiction the said 
offence may have been committed. 

And he it further enacted^ That the marshals, 
their deputies, and the clerks of the said district and 
territorial courts, shall be paid for their services the 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850. 63 

like fees as may be allowed to them for similar 
services iu other cases ; and where such services are 
rendered exclusively in the arrest, custody, and 
delivery of the fugitive to the claimant, his or her 
agent or attorney, or where such supposed fugitive 
may be discharged out of custody for the want of 
sufficient proof as aforesaid, then such fees are to be 
paid in the whole by such claimant, his agent or 
attorney ; and in all cases where the proceedings are 
before a commissioner, he shall be entitled to a fee 
of ten dollars in full for his services in each case, 
upon the delivery of the said certificate to the claim- 
ant, his or her agent or attorney ; or a fee of five 
dollars in cases where the proof shall not, in the 
opinion of such commissioner, warrant such certifi- 
cate and delivery, inclusive of all services incident to 
such arrest or examination, to be paid in either case 
by the claimant, his or lier agent or attorney. The 
person or persons authorized to execute the process 
to be issued by such commissioner for the arrest and 
detention of fugitives from service or labor as afore- 
said, shall also be entitled to a fee of five dollars 
each, for each person he or they may arrest and take 
before any such commissioner, as aforesaid, at the 
instance and request of such claimant, with such 
other fees as may be deemed reasonable by such 
commissioners for such other additional services as 



64: KEY-NOTES OF AMEKICAN LIBEETY 

may be necessarily performed by bim or tbem ; such 
as attending at tbe examination, keeping the fugi- 
tive in custody, and providing bim with food and 
lodging during bis detention and until the final 
determination of such commissioner; and, in general, 
for performing such other duties as may be required 
by such claimant, his or her attorney or agent, or 
commissioner in the premises. Such fees to be 
made up in conformity with tbe fees usually charged 
by the officers of the courts of juctice within the 
proper district or county, as near as may be practica- 
ble, and paid by such claimants, their agents or 
attorneys, whether such supposed fugitives from 
service or labor be ordered to be delivered to such 
claimants by the final determination of such commis- 
sioner or not. 

And he it further enacted^ That, upon affidavit 
made by the claimant of such fugitive, his agent or 
attorney, after such certificate has been issued that 
he has reason to apprehend that such fugitive will be 
rescued by force from his or her possession before he 
can be taken beyond the limits of the State in which 
the arrest is made, it shall be the duty of the officer 
making the arrest to retain such fugitive in his cus- 
tody, and to remove him to the State whence he 
fled, and there deliver him to said claimant, his 
agent or attorney. And to this end, the officer 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL OF 1850. 65 

aforesaid is hereby authorized and required to employ 
so many persons as he may deem necessary to overcome 
such force, and to retain them in his service so lono- 
as circumstances may require. The said officer and 
his assistants while so employed to receive the com- 
pensation, and to be allowed the same expenses, as 
are now allowed by law for transportation of crimi- 
nals, to be certified by the judge of the district 
within which the arrest is made, and paid out of tlie 
Treasury of the United States. 

And he it further enacted^ That when any per- 
son held to service or labor in any State or Terri- 
tory, or in the District of Columbia, shall escape 
therefrom, the party to whom such service or labor 
may be due, his, her, or their agent or attorney, may 
apply to any court of record therein, or judge 
thereof in vacation, and make satisfactory proof to 
such court, or judge in vacation, of the escape afore- 
said, and that the person escaping owed service or 
labor to such party. "Whereupon the court shall 
cause a record to be made of the matters so proved, 
and also a general description of the person so escap- 
ing with such convenient certainty as may be ; and 
a transcript of such record, authenticated by the 
attestation of the clerk and of the seal of the said 
court, being produced in any other State, Territory, 
or district in which the person so escaping may be 



66 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

found, and being exhibited to any judge, commis- 
sioner, or other officer authorized by the law of the 
United States to cause persons escaping from service 
or labor to be delivered up, shall be held and taken 
to be full and conclusive evidence of the fact of the 
escape, and that the service or labor of the person 
escaping is due to the party in such record men- 
tioned. And upon the production by the said party 
of other and further evidence if necessary, either 
oral or by affidavit, in addition to what is contained 
in the said record of the identity of the person escap- 
ing, he or she shall be delivered up to the claimant. 
And the said court, commissioner, judge, or other 
person authorized by this act to grant certificates to 
claimants of fugitives, shall, upon the production of 
the record and other evidences aforesaid, grant to 
such claimant a certificate of his right to take any 
such person identified and proved to be owiug 
service or labor as aforesaid, which shall authorize 
such claimant to seize or arrest and transport such 
person to the State or Territory from which he 
escaped. Provided^ That nothing herein contained 
shall be construed as requiring the production of a 
transcript of such record as evidence as aforesaid. 
But in its absence the claim shall be heard and 
determined upon other satisfactory proofs, competent 
in law. 



THE MISSOTmi COMPSOMISE. 67 



THE MISSOUKI OOMPEOMISE. 

ADOPTED MAEOH 6, 1820. 

An Act to authorize the People of the Missouri 
Territory to form a Constitution and State Gov- 
eminent,^ and for the Admission of such State into 
the Union on an equal Footing with the original 
States^ and to prohibit Slavery in certain Terri- 
tories. 

(All the previous sections of this act relate entirely to the 
formation of the Missouri Territory in the usual form of territo- 
lial hills, the 8th section only relating to the slavery question.) 

And he it further enacted, That in all that 
Territory ceded by France to the United States, 
under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 
thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, 
not included within the limits of the State contem- 
plated by their act, slavery and involuntary servi- 
tude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, 
whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, 



68 KEY-NOTES OF AMEBICAN LIBEETY. 

shall be, and is hereby, forever prohibited. Pro- 
vided always^ That anj person escaping into the 
sanTiC, from whom labor or service is lawfully 
claimed, in any State or Territory of the United 
States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and 
conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or 
service as aforesaid. 



THE STATES OF THE TINTON-. 



69 



THE STATES OF THE UNION. 



The following is a list of the States constituting the Union, 
with the dates of their admission. The thirty-six stars in our 
national flag are therefore designated as under : 



Delaware Dec. 7, 1787. 

Pennsylvania. ..Dec. 12, 1787. 
New Jersey. . ..Dec. 13, 1787. 

Georgia Jan. 2, 1788. 

Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788. 

Massachusetts. . .Feb. 6, 1788. 

Maryland April 28, 1788. 

South Carolina.. May 23, 1788. 
N. Hampshire.. June 21, 1788. 

Virginia June 26, 1788. 

New York July 26, 1788. 

N. Carolina. . . .Nov. 21, 1789. 
Rhode Island. ..May 29, 1790. 

Vermont March 4, 1791. 

Kentucky June 1, 1792. 

Tennessee June 1, 1796. 

Ohio Nov. 29, 1802. 

Louisiana April 8, 1812. 



Indiana Dec. 11, 1816. 

Mississippi Dec. 16, 1817. 

Illinois Dec. 3, 1818. 

Alabama Dec. 14, 1819. 

Maine March 15, 1820. 

Missouri Aug. 10, 1821. 

Arkansas June 15, 1886. 

Michigan Jan. 26, 1837. 

Florida March 3, 1845. 

Texas Dec. 29, 1845. 

Iowa Dec. 28, 1846. 

Wisconsin May 29, 1848. 

California Sept. 9, 1850. 

Mmnesota Dec, 1857. 

Oregon Dec, 1858. 

Kansas March, 1862. 

West Virginia Feb. 1863. 

Nevada Oct., 1864. 



70 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEKAN LIBEETT. 



INAUGUEAL ADDEESS OF GEOEGE 
WASHINGTON. 

FIRST PEESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES, DELIVERED AI'EIL 

30, 1789. 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of 
Kepeesentatives — Among the vicissitudes incident 
to life, no event could have filled me with greater 
anxieties than that of which the notification was 
transmitted by your order, and received on the four- 
teenth day of the present month. On the one hand 
I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can 
never hear but with veneration and love, from a 
retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predi- 
lection, and in my flattering hopes with an immuta- 
ble decision as the asylum of my declining years ; a 
retreat which was rendered every day more necessary 
as well as more dear to me, by the addition of habit 
to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my 
health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. 



INATrGTJRAL ADDRESS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. 71 

On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of 
the trust to which the voice of my country called me 
being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most 
experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into 
his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with de- 
spondence one who, inheriting inferior endowments 
from nature, and unpracticed in the duties of civil 
administration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of 
his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions, all 
I dare aver is, that it has been my faithful study to 
collect my duty from a just appreciation of every 
circumstance by which it might be afiected. All I 
dare hope is, that if, in executing this task, I have 
been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance 
of former instances, or by any afiectionate sensibility 
to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my 
fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted 
my incapacity as well as disinclination, for the 
weighty and untried cares before me, my error will 
be palliated by the motives which misled me, and its 
consequences be judged by my country with some 
share of the partiality with which they originated. 

Such being the impressions under which I have, 
in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the 
present station, it would be peculiarly improper to 
omit in this first official act, my fervent supplica- 
tions to that Almighty Being who rules over the 



72 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

universe, who presides in tlie councils of nations, and 
whose providential aids can supply every human 
defect that his benediction may consecrate to the 
liberties and happiness of the people of the United 
States, a government instituted by themselves for 
these essential purposes, and may enable every in- 
strument employed in its administration to execute 
with success the functions allotted to his charge. In 
tendering this homage to the grestt author of every 
public and private good, I assure myself that it ex- 
presses your sentiments, not less than my own, nor 
those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. 
"No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore 
the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men 
more than the people of the United States. Every 
step by which they have advanced to the character 
of an independent nation seems to have been distin- 
guished by some token of providential agency, and 
in the important revolution just accomplished in the 
system of their united government the tranquil de- 
liberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct 
communities from which the event has resulted can- 
not be compared with the means by which most gov- 
ernments have been established without some return 
of pious gratitude along with a humble anticipation 
of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. 
These reflections arising out of the present crisis 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF GEOEGE WASHINGTON. 73 

have forced themselves too strongly on mj mind to 
be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in 
thinking that there are none under the influence of 
which the proceedings of anew and free government 
can more auspiciously commence. 

By the article establishing the executive depart- 
ment it is made the duty of the President " to re- 
commend to your consideration such measures as he 
shall judge necessary and expedient." The circum- 
stances under which I now meet you will acquit me 
from entering into that subject farther than to refer 
to the great constitutional charter under which you 
are assembled, and which in defining your powers 
designates the objects to which your attention is to 
be given. It will be more consistent with those cir- 
cumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings 
which actuate me to substitute in place of a recom- 
mendation of particular measures, the tribute that 
is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriot- 
ism which adorn the characters selected to devise 
and a'dopt them. In these honorable qualifications, I 
behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local 
prejudices or attachments, no separate views, no 
party animosities will misdirect the comprehensive 
and equal eye which ought to watch over this 
great assemblage of communities and interests, so on 
another, that the foundations of our national policy 



74 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBEETT. 

will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of 
private morality, and the pre-eminence of free gov- 
ernment be exemplified by all the attributes which 
can win the affections of its citizens and command 
the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect 
with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my 
country can inspire, since there is no truth more thor- 
oughly established than that there exists in the econ- 
omy and course of nature, an indissoluble union be- 
tween virtue and happiness, between duty and 
advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest 
and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of 
the public prosperity and felicity. Since we ought 
to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of 
heaven can never be expected on a nation that dis- 
regards the eternal rules of order and right which 
heaven itself has ordained, and since the preserva- 
tion of the sacred fire of Liberty, and the destiny of 
the republican model of government are justly con- 
sidered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked on the 
experiment entrusted to the hands of the American 
people. Besides the ordinary objects submitted to 
your care, it will remain with your judgment to 
decide how far an exercise of the occasional power 
delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is ren- 
dered expedient at the present juncture by the nature 
of the objections which have been urged against 



INArarEAL address of GEOEGE WASHINGTON. 75 

the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has 
given birth to them. Instead of undertaking partic- 
ular recommendations on this subject in which 1 
could be guided by no lights derived from official 
opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire 
confidence in your discernment aud pursuit of the 
public good, for I assure myself that while you care- 
fully avoid every alteration which might endanger 
the benefits of an united and efiective government, 
or which ought to await the future lessons of experi- 
ence, a reverence for the characteristic rights of 
freemen, and a regard for the public harmony will 
sufficiently influence your deliberations on the ques- 
tion, how far the former can be more impregnably 
fortified, or the latter be safely and advantageously 
promoted. 

To the preceding observations I have one to add, 
which will be most properly addressed to the House 
of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will, 
therefore, be as brief as possible. When I was first 
honored with a call into the service of my country, 
then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liber- 
ties, the light in which I comtemplated my duty 
required that I should renounce every pecuniary 
compensation. From this resolution I have in no 
instance departed, and being still under the impres- 
sions which produced it, I must decline as inapplica- 



76 KEY-NOTES OF A^IERICAN LIBEETT. 

ble to myself any share in the personal emoluments 
which may be indispensably included in a perma- 
nent provision for the executive department, and 
must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates 
for the station in which I am placed, may, during 
my continuance in it, be limited to such actual ex- 
penditures as the public good may be thought to 
require. 

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments, as 
as they have been awakened by the occasion which 
brings us together, I shall take my present leave, 
but not without resorting once more to the benign 
parent of the human race in humble supplication, 
that since he has been pleased to favor the American 
people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect 
tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with un- 
paralleled unanimity on a form of government for 
the security of their union and the advancement of 
their happiness, so His divine blessing may be 
equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, tlie tem- 
perate consultations, and the wise measures on which 
the success of this government must depend. 



Washington's farewell addbess. 77 



WASHINGTON'S FAEEWELL ADDRESS. 



Feeends and Fellow-Citizens — The period for a 
new election of a citizen to administer the executive 
government of the United States not being far dis- 
tant, and the time actually arrived when your 
thoughts must be employed in designating the person 
who is to be clothed with that important trust, it 
appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce 
to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that 
I should now apprise you of the resolution I have 
formed, to decline being considered among the num- 
ber of those out of whom a choice is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice 
to be assured that this resolution has not been taken 
without a strict regard to all the considerations ap- 
pertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citi- 
zen to his country; and that, in withdrawing the 
tender of service which silence, in my situation, 



Y8 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

miglit imply, I am influenced by no diminution of 
zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful 
respect for your past kindness, but am supported by 
a full conviction that the step is compatible with 
both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, 
the office to which your suffrages have twice called 
me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the 
opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared 
to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would 
have been much earlier in my power, consistently 
with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, 
to return to that retirement from which I had been 
reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination 
to do this, previous to the last election, had been led 
to the preparation of an address to declare it to you ; 
but mature reflection on the then perplexed and 
critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, 
and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my 
confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external 
as well as internal, no longer renders the pm-suit of 
inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty 
or propriety ; and am persuaded, whatever partiality 
may be retained for my services, that, in the present 
circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove 
my determination to retire. 



Washington's faeewell address. 79 

The impressions with which I first undertook the 
arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. 
In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, that I 
have with good intentions contributed toward the 
organization and administration of the government 
the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment 
was capable. Not unconscious in the outset of the 
inferiority of my qualifications, experience, in my 
own eyes — perhaps still more in the eyes of others — 
has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; 
and every day the increasing weight of years admon- 
ishes me, more and more, that the shade of retire- 
ment is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. 
Satisfied that, if any circumstances have given pecu- 
liar value to my services, they were temporary, I have 
the consolation to believe that, while choice and pru- 
dence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism 
does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which is in- 
tended to terminate the career of my public life, my 
feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep ac- 
knowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe 
to my beloved country for the many honors it has 
conferred upon me ; still more for the steadfast confi-^ 
dence with which it has supported me, and for the 
opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting 
my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and 



80 k:et-]S"Otes of American libeett. 

persevering, thougli in nsefulness nneqnal to ray zeal. 
If benefits have resulted to our country from these 
services, let it always be remembered to your praise, 
and as an instructive example in our annals, that, 
under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in 
every direction, were liable to mislead ; amid appear^ 
ances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often 
discouraging; in situations in which, not unfre- 
quently, want of success has countenanced the spirit 
of criticism — the constancy of your support was the 
essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the 
plans by which they were effected. Profoundly pen- 
etrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my 
grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that 
Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of 
its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affec- 
tion may be perpetual; that the free constitution, 
which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly 
maintained ; that its administration, in every depart- 
ment, may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; 
that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these 
States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made 
complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent 
a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the 
glory of recommending it to the applause, the affec- 
tion, and the adoption of every nation which is yet 
a stranger to it. 



Washington's farewell addeess. 81 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop ; but a solicitude 
for your welfare, which can not end but with my 
life, and the apprehension of danger natural to 
that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the 
present to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to 
recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments, 
which are the result of much reflection, of no incon- 
siderable observation, and which appear to me all- 
important to the permanency of your felicity as a 
people. These will be afforded to you with the 
more freedom, as you can only see them in the disin- 
terested warnings of a parting friend, who can possi- 
* bly have no personal motive to bias his counsel ; nor 
can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indul- 
gent reception of my sentiments on a former and not 
dissimilar occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every 
ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine 
is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. 

The unity of government, which constitutes you 
one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; 
for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real inde- 
pendence, the support of your tranquillity at home, 
your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, 
of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But 
as it is easy to forsee that from different causes and 
from different quarters much pains will be taken, 



82 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds 
the conviction of this truth — as this is the point in 
your political fortress against which the batteries of 
internal and external enemies will be most constantly 
and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) 
directed — it is of infinite moment that you should 
properly estimate the immense value of your national 
union to your collective and individual happiness ; 
that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and im- 
movable attachment to it, accustoming yourselves to 
think and speak of it as of the palladium of your 
political safety and prosperity; watching for its 
preservation with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing 
whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can, 
in any event, be abandoned ; and indignantly frown- 
ing upon the first dawning of every attempt to 
alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or 
to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together 
the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy 
and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice of a com- 
mon country, that country has a right to concentrate 
your afifections. The nmi^ie of American, -which be- 
longs to you in your national capacity, must always 
exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any 
appellation derived from local discriminations. With 
slight shades of difference, you have the same 



83 



religion, manners, habits, and political principles. 
You have, in a common cause, fought and ■ tri- 
umphed together ; the independence and liberty 
you possess are the work of joint counsels and 
joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and 
successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully 
they address themselves to your sensibility, are 
greatly outweighed by those which apply more 
immediately to your interest ; here every portion of 
our country finds the most commanding motives for 
carefully guarding and preserving the union of the 
wliole. 

The l^orth, in an unrestrained intercourse with 
the South, protected by the equal laws of a common 
government, finds, in the productions of the latter, 
great additional resources of maritime and commer- 
cial enterprise, and precious materials of manufactur- 
ing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, 
benefiting by the agency of the Korth, sees its 
agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning 
partly into its own channels the seamen of the 
l^orth, it finds its particular navigation invigorated ; 
and while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish 
and increase the general mass of the national naviga- 
tion, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime 
strength to which itself is unequally adapted. The 



84 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTT. 

East, in like intercourse with the West, already 
finds, and, in the progressive improvement of inte- 
rior communication, bj land and water, will more 
and more find, a valuable vent, for the commodities 
which it brings from abroad or manufactures at 
home. The West derives from the East supplies 
requisite for its growth and comfort, and, what is 
perhaps of still greater consequence, it must, of 
necessity, owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable 
outlets for its own productions to the weight, influ- 
ence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic 
side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble com- 
munity of interest as one nation. Any other tenure 
by which the West can hold this essential advan- 
tage, whether derived from its own separate strength 
or from an apostate and unnatural connection with 
any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. 

While, then, every part of our country thus feels 
an immediate and particular interest in union, all 
the parts combined can not fail to find, in the united 
mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater 
resource, proportion ably greater security from exter- 
nal danger, a less frequent interruption of their 
peace by foreign nations, and, what is of inestimable 
value, they must derive from union an exemption 
fi'om those broils and wars between themselves, 
which so frequently afflict neighboring countries, not 



85 

tied together by the same goverament, which their 
own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, 
but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, 
and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, 
likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those over- 
grown military establishments, which, under any 
form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and 
which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to 
republican liberty ; in this sense it is that your union 
ought to be considered as the main prop of your lib- 
erty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to 
you the preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language 
to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit a 
continuance of the Union as a primary object of 
patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common 
government can embrace so large a sphere? Let 
experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation, 
in such a case, were criminal. We are authorized to 
hope that a proper organization of the whole, with 
the auxiliary agency of governments for the respec- 
tive subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the 
experiment. It is well worth a full and fair experi- 
ment. With such powerful and obvious motives to 
union, affecting all parts of our country, while expe- 
rience shall not have demonstrated its impractica- 
bility, there will always be reason to distrust the 



86 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor 
to weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes which may disturb 
our Union, it occurs, as a matter of serious concern, 
that any ground should have been furnished for char- 
acterizing parties by geographical discriminations — 
Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western — 
whence designing men may endeavor to excite a 
belief that there is real difference of local interests 
and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire 
influence within particular districts is to misrepresent 
the opinions and aims of other districts. You can 
not shield yourselves too much against the jealousies 
and her.rt-burnings which spring from these misrep- 
resentations ; they tend to render alien to each other 
those who ought to be bound together by fraternal 
affection. The inhabitants of our Western country 
have lately had a useful lesson on this head ; they 
have seen in the negotiation by the Executive, and 
in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the 
treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction 
at that event throughout the United States, a decisive 
proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated 
among them, of a policy in the general government, 
and in the Atlantic States, unfriendly to their inter- 
ests in regard to the Mississippi ; they have been wit- 
nesses to the formation of two treaties — that with 



Washington's farewell address. 87 

Great Britain and that witli Spain — which secure to 
them everything they could desire in respect to our 
foreign relations, toward confirming their prosperity. 
"Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preserva- 
tion of these advantages on the Union by which they 
were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf 
to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever 
them from their brethren and connect them with 
aliens ? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a 
government for the whole is indispensable. No alli- 
ance, however strict, between the parts, can be an 
adequate substitute ; they must inevitably experience 
the infractions and interruptions which all alliances, 
in all time, have experienced. Sensible of this mo- 
mentous truth, you have improved upon your first 
essay, by the adoption of a constitution of govern- 
ment better calculated than your former for an inti- 
mate Union, and for the efficacious management of 
your common concerns. This government, the off- 
spring of your own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, 
adopted upon full investigation and mature delibera- 
tion, completely free in its principles, in the distribu- 
tion of its powers, uniting security with energy, and 
containing within itself a provision for its own 
amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and 
your support. Eespect for its authority, compliance 



S8 KET-NOTEB OF AMERICAN LEBEETY. 

with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties 
enjoined b}^ the fundamental maxims of liberty. The 
basis of our political systems is the right of the people 
to make and to alter their constitutions of govern- 
ment ; but the constitution which at any time exists, 
till changed by an explicit and and authentic act of 
the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. 
The very idea of the power and the right of the peo- 
ple to establish government presupposes the duty 
of every individual to obey the established govern- 
ment. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all 
combinations and associations, under whatever plausi- 
ble character, with the real design to direct, control, 
counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action 
of the constituted authorities, are destructive to this 
fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They 
serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and 
extraordinary force, to put in the place of the dele- 
gated will of the nation the will of a party — often a 
small but artful and enterprising minority of the 
community — and, according to the alternate triumphs 
of different parties, to make the public administration 
the mirror of the ill-concerted and incono-ruous 
projects of faction rather than the organ of consistent 
and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels, 
and modified by mutual interests. 



89 



However combinations or associations of the 
above description may now and then answer popular 
ends, thej are likely, in the course of time and 
things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, 
ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to 
subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for 
themselves the reins of government; destroying, 
afterward, the very engine which had lifted them to 
unjust dominion. 

Toward the preservation of your government, and 
the permanency of your present happy state, it is 
requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance 
irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, 
but also that you resist with care the spirit of inno- 
vation upon its principles, however specious the pre- 
texts. One method of assault may be to effect, in 
the forms of the constitution, alterations which will 
impair the energy of the system, and thus to under- 
mine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all 
the changes to which you may be invited, remember 
that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix 
the true character of governments as of other human 
institutions; that experience is the surest standard 
by which to test the real tendency of the existing 
constitution of a country ; that facility in changes, 
upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, ex- 
poses to perpetual change, from the endless variety 



90 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBEETY. 

of h}^otbesis and opinion ; and remember, especially, 
that for the efficient management of your common 
interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a govern- 
ment of as much vigor as is consistent with the per- 
fect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty 
itself will find in such a government, with powers 
properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. 
It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the gov- 
ernment is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of 
faction, to confine each member of the society within 
the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all 
in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of 
person and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of 
parties in the state, with particular reference to the 
founding of them on geographical discriminations. 
Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and 
warn you, in the most solemn manner, against the 
baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our 
nature, having its root in the strongest passions of 
the human mind. It exists, under different shapes, 
in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or 
repressed ; but in those ot the popular form it is seen 
in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over an- 
other, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to 



Washington's faeewell address. 91 

party dissension, which, in different ages and coun- 
tries, has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is 
itself a frightful despotism. But this leads, at length, 
to a more formal and permanent despotism. The 
disorders and miseries which result gradually incline 
the minds of men to seek security and repose in the 
absolute power of an individual ; and, sooner or 
later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able 
or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this 
disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on 
the ruins of public liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this 
kind (which, nevertheless, ought not to be entirely 
out of sight), the common and continued mischiefs of 
the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the inter- 
est and duty of a wise people to discourage and 
restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the public councils 
and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates 
the community with ill-founded jealousies and false 
alarms ; kindles the animosity of one part against an- 
other; foments, occasionally, riot and insurrection. 
It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, 
which find a facilitated access to the government 
itself through the channels of party passions. Thus 
the policy and the will of one country are subjected 
to the policy and will of another. 



92 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN" LEBEETY. 

There is an opinion tliat parties, in free countries, 
are useful checks upon the administration of the gov- 
ernment, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. 
This, within certain limits, is probably true ; and in 
governments of a monarchial cast, patriotism may 
look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the 
spirit of party. But in those of the popular charac- 
ter, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not 
to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it 
is certain there will always be enough of that spirit 
for every salutatory purpose. And there being con- 
stant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force 
of public opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A fire 
not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance 
to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of 
warming, it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of think- 
ing, in a free country, should inspire caution in those 
intrusted with its administration, to confine them- 
selves within their respective constitutional spheres, 
avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of one depart- 
ment, to encroach upon another. The spirit of 
encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all 
the departments into one, and thus to create, what- 
ever the form of government, a real despotism. A 
just estimate of that love of power and proneness to 
abuse it which predominate in the human heart is 



03 



sufficient to satisfy ns of the truth of this position. 
The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of 
political power, by dividing and distributing it into 
different depositories, and constituting each the 
guardian of the public weal, against invasion by the 
others, has been evinced by experiments, ancient 
and modern — some of them in our own country and 
under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as 
necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of 
the people, the distribution or modification of the 
constitutional powers be, in any particular, wrong, 
let it be corrected by an amendment in the way 
which the constitution designates. But let there be 
no change by usurpation ; for though this, in one 
instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the 
customary weapon by whicH free governments are 
destroyed. The precedent must always greatly 
overbalance, in permanent evil, any partial or 
transient benefit which the use can, at any time, 
yield. 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to 
political prosperity, religion and morality are indis- 
pensable supports. In vain would that man claim 
the tribute ot patriotism who should labor to subvert 
these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest 
props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere 
politician, equally with the pious man, ought to 



94 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LrBERTT. 

respect and to cherish them. A volume could not 
trace all their connections with private and public 
felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the 
security for property, for reputation, for life, if the 
sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which 
are the instruments of investigation in courts of 
justice ? And let us with caution indulge the sup- 
position that morality can be maintained without 
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influ- 
ence of refined education on minds of peculiar 
structure, reason and experience both forbid us to 
expect that national morality can prevail in exclu- 
sion of religious principles. 

It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is 
a necessary spring of popular government. The 
rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every 
species of free government. Who that is a sincere 
friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts 
to shake the foundation of the fabric ? 

Promote, then, as an object of primary impor- 
tance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowl- 
edge. In proportion as a structure of a government 
gives force to public opinion, it is essential that 
public opinion should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and 
security, cherish public credit. One method of pre- 
serving it is to use it as sparingly as possible; 



95 



avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, 
but remembering, also, that timely disbursements to 
prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater 
disbursements to repel it ; avoiding, likewise, the 
accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions 
of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of 
peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars 
may have occasioned ; not ungenerously throwing 
upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought 
to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to 
your representatives, but it is necessary that public 
opinion should cooperate. To facilitate to them the 
performance of their duty, it is essential that you 
should practically bear in mind that toward the pay- 
ment of debts there must be revenue : that to have 
revenue there must be taxes ; that no taxes can be 
devised which are not more or less inconvenient and 
unpleasant ; that the intrinsic embarrassment insepa- 
rable from the selection of the proper objects (which 
is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a deci- 
sive motive for a candid construction of the conduct 
of the government in making it, and for a spirit of 
acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue 
which the public exigencies may at any time dictate. 
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations ; 
cultivate peace and harmony with all ; religion and 
morality enjoin this conduct, and can it be that 



96 



KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 



good policy does not really enjoin it ? It will be 
worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant 
period, a great nation, to give to mankind the mag- 
nanimous and too novel example of a people always 
guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. 
Who can doubt that, in the course of time and 
things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay 
any temporary advantages which might be lost by a 
steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence 
has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation 
with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is recom- 
mended by every sentiment which ennobles human 
nature. Alas ! it is rendered impossible by its 
vices ? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more 
essential than that permanent inveterate antipathies 
against particular nations, and passionate attach- 
ments for others, should be excluded, and that, in 
place of them, just and amicable feelings toward all 
should be cultivated. The nation which indulges 
toward another an habitual hatred, or an habitual 
fondness, is, in some degree, a slave. It is a slave to 
its animosity or its affection, either of which is suffi- 
cient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. 
Antipathy in one nation against another disposes 
each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay 
hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty 



97 



and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions 
of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obsti- 
nate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, 
prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes 
impels to war the government, contrary to the best 
calculations of policy. The government sometimes 
participates in the national propensity, and adopts, 
through passion, what reason would reject ; at other 
times it makes the animosity of the nation subservi- 
ent to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, 
ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. 
The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty of 
nations, has been the victim. 

So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one 
nation to another produces a variety of evils. Sym- 
pathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion 
of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no 
real common interest exists, and infusing into one 
the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a 
participation into the quarrels and wars of the latter, 
without adequate inducement or justification. It 
leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of 
privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to 
injure the nation making the concessions, by unnec- 
essarily parting with what ought to have been 
retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a 
disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom 



98 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

equal privileges are withheld ; and it gives to ambi- 
tious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote 
themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray 
or sacrifice the interest of their own country, with- 
out odium, sometimes even witli popularity ; gilding 
with the appearance of a virtuous sense of obligation, 
a commendable deference for public opinion, or a 
laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish 
compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable 
ways, such attachments ai'e particularly alarming to 
the truly enlightened and independent patriot. 
How many opportunities do they afford to tamper 
with domestic factions, to practice the art of seduc- 
tion, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe 
the public councils ! Such an attachment of a small 
or weak toward a great and powerful nation dooms 
the former to be the satellite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I 
conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jeal- 
ousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, 
since history and experience prove that foreign 
influence is one of the most baneful foes of repub- 
lican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, 
must be impartial, else it becomes the instrument of 
the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense 
against it. E:s:cessive partiality for one foreign 



99 



nation, and excessive dislike for another, cause those 
whom they actuate to see danger only on one 
side, and serve to vail, and even second, the arts of 
influence on the other. Real patriots, who may 
resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to 
become suspected and odious, -whiJie its tools and 
dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the peo- 
ple, to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to 
foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial rela- 
tions, to have with them as little political connection 
as possible. So far as we have already formed 
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good 
faith. Here let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to 
us have none or a very remote relation. Hence she 
must be engaged in frequent controversies, the 
causes of which are essentially foreign to our con- 
cerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us 
to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in tlie or- 
dinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary 
combinations and collisions of her friendships or 
enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and 
enables us to pursue a different course. If we 
remain one people, under an efficient government, 
the period is not far off when we may defy material 



100 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN" LEBEETT. 

injury from external annoyance, when we may take 
such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may 
at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected 
— when belligerent nations, under the impossibility 
of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly 
hazard the giving us provocation — when we may 
choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by jus- 
tice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a 
situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign 
ground ? Why, by interweaving our destiny with 
that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival- 
ship, interest, humor, or caprice ? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent 
alliances with any portion of the foreign world ; so 
fir, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it ; for 
let me not be understood as capable of patronizing 
infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the 
maxim no less applicable to public than to private 
affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I 
repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be 
observed in their genuine sense. But, in my 
opinion, it is unnecessary, and would be unwise, to 
extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable 
establishments, on a respectable defensive posture, 



Washington's faeewell address. 101 

we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extra- 
ordinary emergencies. 

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse witli all 
nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and 
interest. But even our commercial policy should 
hold an equal and impartial- hand ; neither seeking 
nor granting exclusive favors or preferences ; con- 
sulting the natural course of things ; diffusing and 
diversifying, by gentle means, the streams of com- 
merce, but forcing nothing ; establishing, with 
powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable 
course, to define the rights of our mercliants, and to 
enable the government to support them, conven- 
tional rules of intercourse, the best that present 
circumstances and mutual opinions will permit, but 
temporary, and liable to be, from time to time, 
abandoned or varied, as experience and circum- 
stances shall dictate ; constantly keeping in view 
that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested 
favors from another ; that it must pay, with a por- 
tion of its independence, for \\hatever it may accept 
under that character ; that by such acceptance it 
may place itself in the condition of having given 
equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being 
reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. 
There can be no greater error than to expect, or 
calculate upon, real favors from nation to nation. 



102 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETT. 

It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a 
just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to jou, mj countrymen, these connsels 
of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope 
thej will make the strong and lasting impression I 
could wish — that they will control the usual current 
of the passions, or prevent our nation from running 
the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of 
nations ; but if I may even flatter myself that they 
may be productive of some partial benefit, some 
occasional good, that they may now and then recur 
to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against 
the mischiefs of foreign intrigues, to guard against 
the impostures of pretended patriotism — this hope 
will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your 
welfare by which they have been dictated. 

How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I 
have been guided by the principles which have been 
delineated, the public records, and other evidences 
of my conduct, must witness to you and the world. 
To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, 
that I have at least believed myself to be guided by 
them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, 
my proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the 
index to my plan. Sanctioned by your approving 
voice, and by that of your representatives in both 



Washington's farewell address. 103 

Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has 
continually governed me, uninfluenced by any 
attempts to deter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the 
best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that 
our country, under all the circumstances of the case, 
had a right to take, and was bound in duty and in- 
terest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I 
determined, as far as should depend upon me, to main- 
tain it with moderation, perseverance, and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the right to 
hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion 
to detail. I will only observe that, according to my 
understanding of the matter, that right, so far from 
being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has 
been virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be 
inferred, without anything more, from the obligation 
which justice and humanity impose on every nation, 
in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate 
the relations of peace and amity toward other nations. 

The inducements of interest, for observing that 
conduct, will be best referred to your own reflections 
and experience. With me, a predominant motive has 
been to endeavor to gain time to our country to 
settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to 
progress, without interruption, to that degree of 



104 KEY-NOTES OF AMEKICAN" LIEEETT. 

strength and consistency wliich is necessary to give it, 
humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes. 
Though, in reviewing the incidents of my admin- 
istration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I 
am, nevertheless, too sensible of my defects not to 
think it probable that I may have committed many 
errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech 
the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which 
they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope 
that my country will never cease to view them with 
indulgence, and that, after forty-five years of my life 
dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults 
of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, 
as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. 

Belying on its kindness in this, as in other things, 
and actuated by that fervent love toward it which is 
so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of 
himself and his progenitors for several generations, 
I anticipate, with pleasing expectation, that retreat 
in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, 
the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of 
my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws 
under a free government — the ever favorite object of 
my heart — and the happy reward, as I trust, of our 
mutual cares, labors, and dangers. 

George Washingtoi^. 
United States, 17th September, 1796. 



105 



PEESIDENT JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION, 

ISSUED m 1832, when south oaeolina undertook to annul 

THE FEDERAL REVENUE LAW. 

Whekeas a convention, assembled in the State of 
South Carolina, have passed an ordinance, bj which 
tliey declare " that the several acts and parts of acts 
of the Congress of the United States, purporting to 
be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the 
importation of foreign commodities, and now having 
actual operation and effect within the United States, 
and more especially ' two acts for the same purposes, 
passed on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 14:th of 
July, 1832,' are unauthorized by the Constitution of 
the United States, and violate the true meaning and 
intent thereof, and are null and void, and no law," 
nor binding on the citizens of that State or its offi- 
cers ; and by the said ordinance it is further declared 
to be unlawful for any of the constituted authori- 
ties of the State, or of the United States, to enforce 



106 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LLBEETT. 

tlie payment of tlie duties imposed by tlie said acts 
within the same State, and that it is the duty of the 
legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary to 
give full effect to the said ordinances : 

And whereas, by the said ordinance it is further 
ordained, that, in no case of law or equity, decided in 
the courts of said State, wherein shall be drawn in 
question the validity of the said ordinance, or of the 
acts of the legislature that may be passed to give it 
effect, or of the said laws of the United States, no 
appeal shall be allowed to the Supreme Court of the 
United States, nor shall any copy of the record be 
permitted or allowed for that purpose ; and that any 
person attempting to take such appeal, shall be pun- 
ished as for a contempt of court: 

And, finally, the said ordinance declares that the 
people of South Carolina will maintain the said ordi- 
nance at every hazard ; and that they will consider 
the passage of any act by Congress abolishing or 
closing the ports of the said State, or otherwise ob- 
structing the free ingress or egress of vessels to and 
from the said ports, or any other act of the Federal 
Government to coerce the State, shut up her ports, 
destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce the 
said acts otherwise than through the civil tribunals 
of the countrj^, as inconsistent with the longer con- 
tinuance of South Carolina in the Union ; and that 



107 



the people of the said State will thenceforth hold 
themselves absolved from all further obligation to 
maintain or preserve their political connection with 
the people of the other States, and will forthwith 
proceed to organize a separate government, and do 
all other acts and things which sovereign and inde- 
pendent States may of right do: 

And whereas the said ordinance prescribes to the 
people of South Carolina a course of conduct in direct 
violation of their duty as citizens of the United 
States, contrary to the laws of their country, subver- 
sive of its Constitution, and having for its object the 
destruction of the Union — that Union, which, coeval 
with our political existence, led our fathers, without 
any other ties to unite them than those of patriotism 
and common cause, through a sanguinary struggle to 
a glorious independence — that sacred Union, hitherto, 
inviolate, which, perfected by our happy Constitu- 
tion, has brought us, by the favor of Heaven, to a 
state of prosperity at home, and high consideration 
abroad, rarely, if ever, equaled in the history of na- 
tions ; to preserve this bond of our political existence 
from destruction, to maintain inviolate this state of 
national honor and prosperity, and to justify the con- 
fidence my fellow-citizens have reposed in me, I, 
Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, 
have thought proper to issue this, my Pkoclamation, 



108 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN" LIBERTY. 

stating my views of the Constitution and laws 
applicable to the measures adopted bj the Conven- 
tion of South Carolina, and to the reasons thej have 
put forth to sustain them, declaring the course which 
duty will require me to pursue, and, appealing to the 
understanding and patriotism of the people, warn 
them of the consequences that must inevitably result 
from an observance of the dictates of the Convention. 

Strict duty would require of me nothing more 
than the exercise of those powers with which I am 
now, or may hereafter be, invested, for preserving 
the Union, and for the execution of the laws. But 
the imposing aspect which opposition has assumed in 
this case, by clothing itself with State authority, and 
the deep interest w4iich the people of the United 
States must all feel in preventing a resort to stronger 
measures, while there is a hope that anything will be 
yielded to reasoning and remonstrances, perhaps 
demand, and will certainly justify, a full expoj^ition 
to South Carolina and the nation of the views I en- 
tertain of this important question, as well as a distinct 
enunciation of the course which my sense of duty will 
require me to pursue. 

The ordinance is founded, not on the indefeasible 
right of resisting acts which are plainly unconstitu- 
tional, and too oppressive to be endured, but on the 
strange position that any one State may not only 



PEESIDENT JACKSON's PROCLAMATION". 109 

declare an act of Congress void, but prohibit its exe- 
cution — that they may do this consistently with the 
Constitution — that the true construction of that 
instrument permits a State to retain its place in the 
Union, and yet be bound by no other of its laws than 
those it may choose to consider as constitutional. It 
is true they add, that, to justify this abrogation of a 
law, it must be palpably contrary to the Constitution ; 
but it is evident, that to give the right of resisting 
laws of that description, coupled with the uncon- 
trolled right to decide what laws deserve that char- 
acter, is to give the power of resisting all laws. For, 
as by the theory, there is no appeal, the reasons 
alleged by the State, good or bad, must prevail. If 
it should be said that public opinion is a sufficient 
check against the abuse of this power, it may be 
asked why is it not deemed a snfficient guard against 
the passage of an unconstitutional act by Congress. 
There is, however, a restraint in this last case, which 
makes the assumed power of a State more indefensi- 
ble, and which does not exist in the other. There 
are two appeals from an unconstitutional act passed 
by Congress — one to the judiciary, the other to the 
people and the States. There is no appeal from the 
State decision in theory ; and the practical illustra- 
tration shows that the courts are closed against an 
application to review it, both judges and jurors being 



110 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

Bworn to decide in its favor. But reasoning on tliis 
subject is superfluous, when our social compact in 
express terms declares, that the laws of the United 
States, its Constitution, and treaties made under it, 
are the supreme law of the land ; and for greater 
caution adds, " that the judges in every State shall 
be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or 
laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." 
And it may be asserted, without fear of refutation, 
that no federative government could exist without a 
similar provision. Look, for a moment, to the conse- 
quence. If South Carolina considers the revenue 
laws unconstitutional, and has a right to prevent 
their execution in the port of Charleston, there would 
be a clear constitutional objection to their collection 
in every other port, and no revenue could be collected 
anywhere ; for all imposts must be equal. It is no 
answer to repeat that an unconstitutional law is no 
law, so long as the question of its legality is to be 
decided by the State itself; for every law operating 
injuriously upon any local interest will be perhaps 
thought, and certainly represented, as unconstitu- 
tional, and, as has been shown, there is no appeal. 

If this doctrine had been established at an earlier 
day, the Union would have been dissolved in its 
infancy. The excise law in Pennsylvania, the em- 
bargo and non-intercourse law in the Eastern States, 



Ill 



tlie carriage tax in Virginia, were all deemed uncon- 
stitutional, and were more unequal in their o]3eration 
than any of the laws now complained of; but, fortu- 
nately, none of those States discovered that they had 
the right now claimed by South Carolina. The war 
into which we were forced, to support the dignity of 
the nation and the rights of our citizens, might have 
ended in defeat and disgrace, instead of victory and 
honor, if the States, who supposed it a ruinous and 
unconstitutional measure, had thought they possessed 
the right of nullifying the act by which it was de- 
clared, and denying supplies for its prosecution. 
Hardly and unequally as those measures bore upon 
several members of the Union, to the legislatures of 
none did this efficient and peaceable remedy, as it is 
called, suggest itself. The discovery of this impor- 
tant feature in our Constitution was reserved to the 
present day. To the statesmen of South Carolina 
belongs the invention, and upon the citizens of that 
State will, imfortunately, fall the evils of reducing it 
to practice. 

If the doctrine of a State veto upon the laws of 
the Union carries with it internal evidence of its im- 
practicable absurdity, our constitutional history will 
also afford abundant proof that it would have been 
repudiated with indignation had it been proposed to 
form a feature in our government. 



112 KEY-NOTES OF AMEKICAN LIBERTY. 

In our colonial state, altliongh dependent on an- 
other power, we very early considered ourselves as 
connected by common interest with each other. 
Leagues were formed for common defense, and before 
the Declaration of Independence, we were known in 
our aggregate character as the United Colonies of 
America. That decisive and important step was 
taken jointly. We declared ourselves a nation by a 
joint, not by several acts ; and when the terms of 
our confederation were reduced to form, it was in 
that of a solemn league of several States, by which 
they agreed that they would, collectively, form one 
nation, for the purpose of conducting some certain 
domestic concerns, and all foreign relations. In the 
instrument forming that Union, is found an article 
which declares that " every State shall abide by the 
determinations of Congress on all questions which 
by that Confederation should be submitted to them." 

Under the Confederation, then, no State could 
legally annul a decision of the Congress, or refuse to 
submit to its execution ; but no provision was made 
to enforce these decisions. Congress made requisi- 
tions, but they were not complied with. The gov- 
ernment could not operate on individuals. They had 
no judiciary, no means of collecting revenue. 

But the defects of the Confederation need not be 
detailed. Under its operation we could scarcely be 



113 



called a nation. We had neither prosperity at home 
nor consideration abroad. This state of thing-s could 
not be endured, and our present happy Constitution 
was formed, but formed in vain, if this fatal doctrine 
prevails. _ It was formed for important objects tliat 
are announced in the preamble made in the name 
and by the authority of the people of the United 
States, whose delegates framed, and whose conven- 
tions approved, it. 

The most important among these objects, that 
which is placed first in rank, on which all the others 
rest, is ^' to form a more perfect Union.^^ Now, it is 
possible that, even if tliere were no express provision 
giving supremacy to the Constitution and laws of 
the United States over those of the States, it can be 
conceived that an instrument made for the purpose 
of ''forming a more perfect Union'^'^ than that of the 
Confederation, could be so constructed by the assem- 
bled wisdom of our country as to substitute for that 
confederation a form of government, dependent for 
its existence on the local interest, the party spirit of 
a State, or of a prevailing faction in a State ? Every 
man, of plain, unsophisticated understanding, who 
hears the question, will give such an answer as will 
preserve the Union. Metaphysical subtlety, in pur- 
suit of an impracticable theory, could alone have 
devised one that is calculated to destroy it. 
5* 



114 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTT. 

I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the 
United States, assumed by one State, incomjpatible 
with the existence of the TJnion^ contradicted expressly 
hj the letter of the Constitution^ unauthorized hy its 
spirit^ inconsistent with every principle on which it 
was founded^ and destructive of the great object for 
which it was formed. 

After this general view of the leading principle, 
we must examine the particular application of it 
which is made in the ordinance. 

The preamble rests its justification on these 
grounds : It assumes as a fact, that the obnoxious 
laws, although they purport to be laws 'for raising 
revenue, were in reality intended for the protection 
of manufactures, which purpose it asserts to be un- 
constitutional ; that the operation of these laws is 
unequal ; that the amount raised by them is greater 
than is required by the wants of the government ; 
and, finally, that the proceeds are to be applied to 
objects unauthorized by the Constitution. These are 
the only causes alleged to justify an open opposition 
to the laws of the country, and a threat of seceding 
from the Union, if any attempt should be made to 
enforce them. The first actually acknowledges that 
the law in question was passed under power ex- 
pressly given by the Constitution, to lay and collect 
imposts ; but its constitutionality is drawn in ques- 



115 



tion from tlie motives of those who passed it. How- 
ever apparent this purpose may be in the present 
case, nothing can be more dangerous than to admit 
the position that an unconstitutional purpose, enter- 
tained by the members who assent to a law enacted 
under a constitutional power, shall make that law 
void ; for how is that purpose to be ascertained ? 
Who is to make the scrutiny ? How often may bad 
purposes be falsely imputed? In how many cases 
are they concealed by false professions? In how 
many is no declaration of motive made ? Admit this 
doctrine, and you give to the States an uncontrolled 
right to decide, and every law may be annulled 
under this pretext. If, therefore, the absurd and 
dangerous doctrine should be admitted, that a State 
may annul an unconstitutional law, or one that it 
deems such, it will not apply to the present case. 

The next objection is, that the laws in question 
operate unequally. This objection may be made 
with truth to every law that has been or can be 
passed. The wisdom of man never yet contrived a 
system of taxation that would operate with perfect 
equality. If the unequal operation of a law makes 
it unconstitutional, and if all laws of that description 
may be abrogated by any State for that cause, then, 
indeed, is the federal Constitution unworthy of the 
slightest efforts for its preservation. We have hith- 



116 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

erto relied on it as tlie perpetual bond of our Union. 
We have received it as the work of the assembled 
wisdom of the nation. We have trusted to it as to 
the sheet-anchor of our safety, in the stormy times of 
conflict with a foreign or domestic foe. We have 
looked to it with sacred awe as the palladium of our 
liberties, and with all the solemnities of religion have 
pledged to each other our lives and fortunes here, 
and our hopes of happiness hereafter, in its defense 
and support. Were we mistaken, my countrymen, 
in attaching this importance to the Constitution of 
our country ? Was our devotion paid to the wretched, 
inefficient, clumsy contrivance, which this new doc- 
trine would make it? Did we pledge ourselves to the 
support of an airy nothing — a bubble that must be 
blown away by the first breath of disaffection ? Was 
this self-destroying, visionary theory the work of the 
profound statesmen, the exalted patriots, to whom the 
task of constitutional reform was intrusted ? Did 
the name of Washington sanction, did the States de- 
liberately ratify, such an anomaly in the history of 
fundamental legislation? 'No. We were not mis- 
taken. The letter of this great instrument is free 
from this radical fault; its language directly contra- 
dicts the imputation; its spirit, its evident intent, 
contradicts it. No, we did not err. Our Con?t*tu- 
tion does not contain the absurdity of giving power 



117 

to make laws, and another power to resist them. 
The sages, whose memory will always be reverenced, 
have given us a practical, and, as they hoped, a per- 
manent constitutional compact. The Father of his 
Country did not affix his revered name to so palpable 
an absurdity. Nor did the States, when they sever- 
ally ratified it, do so under the impression that a veto 
on the laws of the United States was reserved to 
them, or that they could exercise it by application. 
Search the debates in all their conventions — examine 
the speeches of the most zealous opposers of federal 
authority — look at the amendments that were pro- 
posed. They are all silent — not a syllable uttered, 
not a vote given, not a motion made, to correct the 
explicit supremacy given to the laws of the Union 
over those of the States, or to show that implication, 
as is now contended, could defeat it. No, we have 
not erred ! The Constitution is still the object of our 
reverence, the bond of our union, our defense in 
danger, the source of our prosperity in peace. It 
shall descend, as we have received it, uncorrupted 
by sophistical construction, to our posterity ; and the 
sacrifices of local interest, of State prejudices, of per- 
sonal animosities, that were made to bring it into 
existence, will again be patriotically offered for its 
support. 

The two remaining objections made by the ordi- 



118 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

nance to these laws are, that the sums intended to be 
raised bj them are greater than are required, and 
that the proceeds will be unconstitutionally employed. 
The Constitution has given expressly to Congress the 
right of raising revenue, and of determining the sum 
the public exigencies will require. The States have 
no control over the exercise of this right other than 
til at which results from the power of changing the 
representatives who abuse it, and thus procure re- 
dress. Congress may nndoubtedly abuse this discre- 
tionary power, but the same may be said of others 
with which they are vested. Yet the discretion must 
exist somewhere. The Constitution has given it to 
the representatives of all the people, checked by the 
representatives of the States, and by the executive 
power. The South Carolina construction gives it to 
the legislature, or the convention of a single State, 
where neither the people of the different States, nor 
the States in their separate capacity, nor the chief 
magistrate elected by the people, have any represen- 
tation. "Which is the most discreet disposition of the 
power ? I do not ask you, fellow-citizens, which is 
the constitutional disposition — that instrument speaks 
a language not to be misunderstood. But if you were 
assembled in general convention, which would you 
think the safest depository of this discretionary power 
in the last resort? Would you add a clause giving 



119 



it to each of the States, or would you sanction the 
wise provisions already made by your Constitution ? 
If this should be the result of your deliberations when 
providing for the future, are you — can you — be ready 
to risk all that we hold dear, to establish, for a tem- 
porary and a local purpose, that which you must 
acknowledge to be destructive, and even absurd, as a 
general provision ? Carry out the consequences of 
this right vested in the different States, and you 
must perceive that the crisis your conduct presents 
at this day would recur whenever any law of the 
United States displeased any of the States, and that 
we should soon cease to be a nation. 

The ordinance, with the same knowledge of the 
future that characterizes a former objection, tells you 
that the proceeds of the tax will be unconstitutionally 
applied. If this could be ascertained with certainty, 
the objection would, with more propriety, be 
reserved for the law so applying the proceeds, but 
surely can not be urged against the laws levying the 
duty. 

These are the allegations contained in the ordi- 
nance. Examine them seriously, my fellow-citizens 
— judge for j^ourselves. I appeal to you to deter- 
mine whether they are so clear, so convincing, as to 
leave no doubt of their correctness ; and even if you 
should come to this conclusion, how far they jnstiiy 



120 KEY-NOTES OP AMERICAN LIBEKTY. 

the reckless, destructive course which you are directed 
to pursue. Keview these objections, and the conclu- 
sions drawn from them once more. What are they ? 
Every law, then, for raising revenue, according to 
the South Carolina ordinance, may be rightfully an- 
nulled, unless it be so framed as no law ever will or 
can be framed. Congress have a right to pass laws 
for raising revenue, and each State has a right to 
oppose their execution — two rights directly opposed 
to each other; and yet is this absurdity supposed to 
be contained in an instrument drawn for the express 
purpose of avoiding collisions between the States and 
the general government, by an assembly of the most 
enlightened statesmen and purest patriots ever em- 
bodied for a similiar purpose. 

In vain have these sages declared that Congress 
shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, im- 
posts, and excises — in vain have they provided that 
they shall have power to pass laws which shall be 
necessary and proper to carry those powers into 
execution, that those laws and that Constitution shall 
be the " supreme law of the land ; and that the 
judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any- 
thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the 
contrary notwithstanding." In vain have the people 
of the several States solemnly sanctioned these pro- 
visions, made them their paramount law, and indi- 



121 



viduallj sworn to support them whenever they were 
called on to execute any office. 

Yain provisions ! Ineffectual restrictions ! Yile 
profanation of oaths ! Miserable mockery of legislar 
tion ! If a bare majority of the voters in any one 
State may, on a real or supposed knowledge of the 
intent with which a law has been passed, declare 
themselves free from its operation — say here it gives 
too littlCj there too much, and operates unequally — 
here it suffers articles to be free that ought to be 
taxed, there it taxes those that ought to be free — in 
this case the proceeds are intended to be applied to 
purposes which we do not approve, in that the 
amount raised is more than is wanted. Congress, it 
is true, are invested by the Constitution with the 
right of deciding these questions according to their 
sound discretion. Congress is composed of the repre- 
sentatives of all the States, and of all the people of 
all the States ; but we, part of the people of one 
State, to whom the Constitution has given no power 
on the subject, from whom it has expressly taken it 
away — we^ who have solemnly agreed that this Con- 
stitution shall be our law — we^ most of whom have 
sworn to support it — ice now abrogate this law, and 
swear, and force others to swear, that it shall not be 
obeyed — and we do this, not because Congress have 
no right to pass such laws ; this we do not allege ; 



122 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

but because they have passed them with improper 
views. They are unconstitutional from the motives 
of those who pass them, which we can never with 
certainty know, from their unequal operation; 
although it is impossible from the nature of things 
that they should be equal — and from the disposition 
which we presume may be made of their proceeds, 
although that disposition has not been declared. 
This is the plain meaning of the ordinance in rela- 
tion to laws which it abrogates for alleged unconsti- 
tutionality. But it does not stop here. It repeals, 
in express terms, an important part of the Constitu- 
tion itself, and of laws passed to give it effect, which 
have never been alleged to be unconstitutional. 
The Constitution declares that the judicial powers of 
the United States extend to cases arising under the 
laws of the United States, and that such laws the 
Constitution and treaties shall be paramount to the 
State constitutions and laws. The judiciary act pre- 
scribes the mode by which the case may be brought 
before a court of the United States, by appeal^ when 
a State tribunal shall decide against this provision of 
the Constitution. The ordinance declares there 
shall be no appeal ; makes the State law paramount 
to the Constitution and laws of the United States ; 
forces judges and jurors to swear that they will dis- 
regard their provisions ; and even makes it penal in 



123 



a suitor to attempt relief by appeal. It further 
declares that it shall not be lawful for the authorities 
of the United States, or of that State, to enforce the 
payment of duties imposed by the revenue laws 
within its limits. 

Here is a law of the United States, not even 
pretended to be unconstitutional, repealed by the 
authority of a small majority of the voters of a single 
State. Here is a provision of the Constitution which 
is solemnly abrogated by the same authority. 

On such expositions and reasonings, the ordi- 
nance grounds not only an assertion of the right to 
annul the laws of which it complains, but to enforce 
it by a threat of seceding from the Union, if any 
attempt is made to execute them. 

This right to secede is deduced from the nature 
of the Constitution, which they say is a compact 
between sovereign States, who have preserved their 
whole sovereignty, and therefore are subject to no 
superior ; that because they made the compact, they 
can break it when in their opinion it has been 
departed from by the other States. Fallacious as 
this course of reasoning is, it enlists State pride, and 
finds advocates in the honest prejudices of those who 
have not studied the nature of our government suffi- 
ciently to see the radical error on which it rests. 

The people of the United States formed the Con- 



124 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LDJERTT. 

stitution, acting tlirougli the State legislatures, in 
making the compact, to meet and discuss its provis- 
ions, and acting in separate conventions when they 
ratified those provisions ; but the term used in its 
construction show it to be a government in which 
the people of all the States collectively are repre- 
sented. We are one people in the choice of the 
President and Yice-President. Here the States have 
no other agency than to direct the mode in which 
the votes shall be given. The candidates having the 
majority of all the votes are chosen. The electors 
of a majority of States may have given their votes 
fur one candidate, and yet another may be chosen. 
The people then, and not the States, are represented 
in the executive branch. 

In the House of Representatives there is this 
difference, that the people of one State do not, as in 
the case of President and Yice-President, all vote 
for all the members, each State electing only its own 
representatives. But this creates no material distinc- 
tion. When chosen, they are all representatives of 
the United States, not representatives of the particu- 
lar State from which they come. They are paid by 
the United States, not by the State ; nor are they 
accountable to it for any act done in performance of 
their legislative functions ; and however they may 
in practice, as it is their duty to do, consult and pre- 



125 



fer the interests of their particular constituents when 
tliey come in conflict with any other partial or local 
interest, yet it is their first and highest duty, as 
representatives of the United States, to promote the 
general good. 

The Constitution of the United States, then, 
forms a government^ not a league, and whether it be 
formed by compact between the States, or in any 
other manner, its character is the same. It is a gov- 
ernment in which all the people are represented, 
which operates directly on the people individualh^, 
not upon the States ; they retained all the power 
they did not grant. But each State having expressly 
parted with so many powers as to constitute jointly 
with the other States a single nation, can not from 
that period possess any right to secede, because such 
secession does not break a league, but destroys the 
unity of a nation, and any injury to that unity is not 
only a breach which would result from the contra- 
vention of a compact, but it is an offense against the 
whole Union. To say that any State may at pleas- 
ure secede from the Union, is to say that the United 
States is not a nation ; because it would be a sole- 
cism to contend that any part of a nation might 
dissolve its connection with the other parts, to their 
injury or ruin, without committing any offense. 
Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be 



126 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

morally justified by the extremity of oppression ; but 
to call it a constitutional right, is confounding the 
meaning of terms, and can only be done through 
gross error, or to deceive those who are willing to 
assert a right, but would pause before they made a 
revolution, or incur the penalties consequent upon a 
failure. 

Because the Union was formed by compact, it is 
said the parties to that compact may, when they feel 
aggrieved, depart from it ; but it is precisely because 
it is a compact that they cannot. A contract is an 
agreement or binding obligation. It may by its 
terms have a sanction or penalty for its breach, or it 
may not. If it contains no sanction, it may be 
broken with no other consequence than moral guilt ; 
if it have a sanction, then the breach incurs the 
designated or implied penalty. A league between 
independent nations, generally, has no sanction other 
than a moral one ; or if it should contain a penalty, 
as there is no common superior, it cannot be 
enforced. A government, on the contrary, always 
has a sanction, express or implied ; and, in our case, 
it is both necessarily implied and expressly given. 
An attempt by force of arms to destroy a govern- 
ment is an offense, by whatever means the constitu- 
tional compact may have been formed ; and such 
government has the right, by the law of self-defense, 



127 



to pass acts for punishing the offender, unless that 
right is modified, restrained, or resumed by the con- 
stitutional act. In our system, although it is modi- 
fied in the case of treason, yet authority is expressly 
given to pass all laws necessary to carry its powers 
into efifect, and under this grant provision has been 
made for punishing acts which obstruct the due 
administration of the laws. 

It would seem superfluous to add anything to 
show the nature of that union which connects us ; 
but as erroneous opinions on this subject are the 
foundation of doctrines the most destructive to our 
peace, I must give some further development to my 
views on this subject. 'No one, fellow-citizens, has a 
higher reverence for the reserved rights of the States 
than the magistrate who now addresses you. "No 
one would make greater personal sacrifices, or ofii- 
cial exertions, to defend them from violation ; but 
equal care must be taken to prevent, on their part, 
an improper interference with, or resumption of, the 
rights they have vested in the nation. The line has 
not been so distinctly drawn as to avoid doubts in 
some cases of the exercise of power. Men of the 
best intentions and soundest views may differ in 
their construction of some parts of the Constitution ; 
but there are others on which dispassionate reflection 
can leave no doubt. Of this nature appears to be 



128 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETT. 

the assumed right of secession. It rests, as we have 
seen, on the alleged and undivided sovereignty of tlie 
States, and of their having formed in this sovereign 
capacity a compact which is called the Constitution, 
from which, because they made it, they have the 
right to secede. Both of these positions are errone- 
ous, and some of the arguments to prove them so 
have been anticipated. 

The States severally have not retained their 
entire sovereignty. It has been shown that in 
becoming parts of a nation, not members of a league, 
they surrendered many of their essential parts of 
sovereignty. The right to make treaties, declare 
war, levy taxes, exercise judicial and legislative 
powers, were all functions of sovereign power. The 
States, then, for all these important purposes, were 
no longer sovereign. The allegiance of their citizens 
was transferred in the first instance to the govern- 
ment of the United States ; they became American 
citizens, and owed obedience to the Constitution of 
the United States, and to laws made in conformity 
with the powers vested in Congress. This last posi- 
tion has not been, and can not be, denied. How, 
then, can that State be said to be sovereign and 
independent whose citizens owe obedience to laws 
not made by it, and whose magistrates are sworn to 
disregard those laws, when they come in conflict 



PRESIDENT Jackson's peoclamation. 1i;9 

witli those passed by another? What shows conchi- 
sivelj that the iStates can not be said to have 
reserved an undivided sovereignty, is that they 
expressly ceded tlte right to punish treason — not 
treason against a separate power, but treason against 
the United States. Treason is an offense ao;ainst sov- 
ereignty, and sovereignty must reside with the power 
to punish it. But the reserved rights of the States 
are not less sacred because they have for their com- 
mon interest made the general government the 
depository of these powers. The unity of our politi- 
cal character (as has been shown for another pur- 
pose) commenced with its very existence. Under 
the royal government we had no separate character ; 
our opposition to its oppression began as united 
COLONIES. We were the United States under the 
Confederation, and the name was perpetuated and 
the Union rendered more perfect by the federal Con- 
stitution. In none of these stages did we consider 
ourselves in any other light than as forming one 
nation. Treaties and alliances were made in the 
name of all. Troops were raised for the joint 
defense. How, then, with all these proofs, that 
under all changes of our position we had, for desig- 
nated purposes and with defined powers, created 
national governments — how is it that the most per- 
fect of these several modes of union should now be 



130 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

considered as a mere league that may be dissolved at 
pleasure? It is from an abuse of terms. Compact 
is used as synonymous with league, although the 
true term is not employed, because it would at once 
show the fallacy of the reasoning. It would not do to 
say that our Constitution was only a league, but it is 
labored to prove it a compact (which, in one sense, it 
is), and then to argue that as a league is a compact, 
every compact between nations must, of course, be a 
league, and that from such an engagement every 
sovereign power has a right to recede. But it has 
been shown that in this sense the States are not 
sovereign, and that even if they were, and the 
national Constitution had been formed by compact, 
there would be no right in any one State to exone- 
rate itself from the obligation. 

So obvious are the reasons which forbid this 
secession, that it is necessary only to allude to them. 
The Union was formed for the benefit of all. It was 
produced by mutual sacrifice of interest and opinions. 
Can those sacrifices be recalled ? Can the States, 
who magnanimously surrendered their title to the 
territories of the West, recall the grant ? WiU the 
inhabitants of the inland States agree to pay the 
duties that may be imposed without their assent by 
those on the Atlantic or the Gulf, for their own 
benefit ? Shall there be a free port in one State, 



PRESIDENT Jackson's proclamation. 131 

and enormous duties in another ? JSTo one believes 
that any right exists in a single State to involve all 
the others in these and countless other evils, contrary 
to engagements solemnly made. Every one must 
see that the other States, in self-defense, must oppose 
it at all hazards. 

These are the alternatives that are presented by 
the convention : A repeal of all the acts for raising 
revenue, leaving the government without the means 
of support; or an acquiesce in the dissolution of our 
Union by the secession of one of its members. 
When the first was proposed, it was known that it 
could not be listened to for a moment. It was 
known if force was applied to oppose the execution 
of the laws, that it must be repelled by force — that 
Congress could not, without involving itself in dis- 
grace and the country in ruin, accede to the proposi- 
tion ; and yet if this is not done in a given day, or 
if any attempt is made to execute the laws, the State 
is, by the ordinance, declared to be out of the Union. 
The majority of a convention assembled for the pur- 
pose have dictated these terms, or rather this 
rejection of all terms, in the name of the people of 
South Carolina. It is true that the governor of the 
State speaks of the submission of their grievances to a 
convention of all the States ; Avhicli, he says, they 
" sincerely and anxiously seek and desire." Yet this 



132 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

obvious and constitutional mode of obtaining the 
sense of the other States on the construction of the 
federal compact, and amending it, if necessary, has 
never been attempted by those who have urged tlie 
State on to this destructive measure. The State 
might have proposed a call for a general convention 
to the other States, and Congress, if a sufficient num- 
ber of them concurred, must have called it. But the 
first magistrate of South Carolina, when he expressed 
a hope that, "on a review by Congress and the func- 
tionaries of the general government of the merits of 
the controversy," such a convention w^ill be accorded 
to them, must have known that neither Congress, 
nor any functionary in the general government, has 
authority to call such a convention, unless it be 
demanded by two-thirds of the States. This sug- 
gestion, then, is another instance of the reckless 
inattention to the provisions of the Constitution with 
which this crisis has been madly hurried on ; or of 
the attempt to persuade the people that a constitu- 
tional remedy has been sought and refused. If the 
legislature of South Carolina " anxiously desire " a 
general convention to consider their complaints, why 
have they not made application for it in the way the 
Constitution points out? The assertion that they 
" earnestly seek " it is completely negatived by the 
omission. 



PRESIDENT JACKSOn's PEOCLAMATION. 333 

This, then is the position in which we stand. A 
small majority of the citizens of one State in the 
Union have elected delegates to a State convention ; 
that convention has ordained that all the revenue 
laws of the United States must be repealed, or that 
thej are no longer a member of the Union. The 
governor of that State has recommended to the legis- 
lature the raising of an armv to carry the secession 
into effect, and that he may be empowered to give 
clearances to vessels in the name of the State. 'No 
act of violent opposition to the laws has yet been 
committed, but such a state of things is hourly appre- 
hended, and it is the intent of this instrument to 
PROCLAIM, not only that the duty imposed on me by 
the Constitution, " to take care that the laws be 
faithfully executed," shall be performed to the extent 
of the powers already vested in me by law, or of such 
others as the wisdom of Congress shall devise and 
intrust to me for that purpose ; but to warn the citi- 
zens of South Carolina, who have been deluded into 
an opposition to the laws, of the danger they will 
incur by obedience to the illegal and disorganizing 
ordinance of the convention — to exhort those who 
have refused to support it to persevere in their deter- 
mination to uphold the Constitution and laws of their 
country, and to point out to all the perilous situa- 
tion into which the good people of that State have 



134 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

been led, and that the course thej are urged to pur- 
sue is one of ruin and disgrace to the very State 
whose rights they effect to support. 

Fellow-citizens of my native State ! let me not 
only admonish you, as the first magistrate of our 
common country, not to incur the penalty of its laws, 
but use the influence that a father would over his 
children whom he saw rushing to a certain ruin. In 
that paternal language, with that paternal feeling, 
let me tell you, my countrymen, that you are deluded 
by men who are either deceived themselves or wish 
to deceive you. Mark under what pretenses you 
have been led on to the brink of insurrection and 
treason on which you stand ! First a diminution of 
the value of our staple commodity, lowered by over- 
production in other quarters and the consequent 
diminution in the value of your lands, were the sole 
effect of the tariff' laws. The effect of those laws 
was confessedly injurious, but the evil was greatly 
exaggerated by the unfounded theory you were 
taught to believe, that its burdens were in propor- 
tion to your exports, not to your consumption of 
imported articles. Your pride was roused by the 
assertions that a submission to these laws was a state 
of vassalage, and that resistance to them was equal, 
in patriotic merit, to the opposition our fathers 
offered to the oppressive laws of Great Britain. You 



135 



were told that tliis opposition miglit be peaceably — 
might be constitutionally made — that you might 
enjoy all the advantages of the Union and bear none 
of its burdens. Eloquent appeals to your passions, 
to your State pride, to your native courage, to yonr 
sense of real injury, were used to prepare you for the 
period when the mask which concealed the hideous 
features of disunion sliould be taken off. It fell, and 
you were made to look with complacency on objects 
which not long since you would have regarded with 
horror. Look back to the arts which have brought 
you to this state — look forward to the consequences 
to which it must inevitably lead! Look back to 
what was first told you as an inducement to enter 
into this dangerous course. The great political 
truth was repeated to you that you had the revolu- 
tionary right of resisting all laws that were palpably 
unconstitutional and intolerably oppressive — it was 
added that the right to nullify a law rested on the 
same principle, but that it was a peaceable remedy ! 
This character which was given to it, made you 
receive with too much confidence the assertions that 
were made of the unconstitutionality of the law and 
its oppressive effects. Mark, my fellow-citizens, that 
by the admission of your leaders the unconstitution- 
ality must hQ palpable, or it will justify either resis-t- 
ance or nullification ! What is the meaning of the 



136 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

word palpable in the sense in which it is here used ? 
— that which is apparent to every one, that which no 
man of ordinary intellect will fail to perceive. Is 
the unconstitutionality of these laws of that descrip- 
tion ? Let those among your leaders who once 
approved and advocated the principles of protective 
duties, answer the question ; and let them choose 
whether they will be considered as incapable, then, 
of perceiving that which must have been apparent to 
every man of common understanding, or as imposing 
upon our confidence and endeavoring to mislead you 
now. In either case, they are unsafe guides in the 
perilous path they urge you to tread. Ponder well 
on this circumstance, and you will know how to 
appreciate the exaggerated language they address 
to you. They are not champions of liberty emulat- 
ing the fame of our Revolutionary fathers, nor are 
you an oppressed people, contending, as they repeat 
to you, against worse than colonial vassalage. You 
are free members of a flourishing and happy Union. 
There is no settled design to oppress you. You 
have, indeed, felt the unequal operation of laws 
which may have been unwisely, not unconstitution- 
ally passed ; but that inequality must necessarily be 
removed. At the very moment when you were 
madly urged on to the unfortunate course you have 
begun, a change in public opinion has commenced. 



137 



The nearly approachfng payment of the public debt, 
and the consequent necessity of a diminution of 
duties, liad already caused a considerable reduction, 
and that, too, on some articles of general consump- 
tion in your State. The importance of this change 
was underrated, and you were authoritatively told 
that no further alleviation of your burdens was to be 
expected, at the very time when the condition of the 
country imperiously demanded such a modification 
of the duties as sliould reduce them to a just and 
equitable scale. But, as apprehensive of the effect 
of this change in allaying your discontents, you were 
precipitated into a fearful state in which you now 
find yourselves. 

I have urged you to look back to the means that 
were used to hurry you on to the position you have 
now assumed, and forward to the consequences it will 
produce. Something more is necessary. Contem- 
plate the condition of that country of which you still 
form an important part ; consider its government 
uniting in one bond of common interest and general 
protection so many different States — giving to all 
their inhabitants the proud title of American citi- 
zens — protecting their commerce — securing their 
literature and arts — facilitating their intercommuni- 
cation — defending their frontiers — and making their 
name respected in the remotest parts of the earth ! 



138 KET-NOTES OF AMERICAH LIBEETT. 

Consider the extent of its territory, its increasing and 
happy population, its advance in arts, which render 
life agreeable, and the sciences which elevate the 
mind! See education spreading the lights of 
religion, morality, and general information into every 
cottage in this wide extent of our Territories and 
States ! Behold it as the asylum where the wretched 
and the oppressed find a refuge and support ! Look 
on this picture of happiness and honor, and say, we, 
TOO, AEE CITIZENS OF Ameeica — Carolina is one of 
these proud States her arms have defended — her best 
blood has cemented this happy Union ! And then 
add, if you can, without horror and remorse, this 
happy Union we will dissolve — this picture of peace 
and prosperity we will deface — this free intercourse 
we will interrupt — these fertile fields we will deluge 
with blood — the protection of that glorious flag we 
renounce — the very name of Americans we discard. 
And for what, mistaken men ! For what do you throw 
away these inestimable blessings — for what would you 
exchange your share in the advantages and honor 
of the Union ? For the dream of a separate inde- 
pendence — a dream interrupted by bloody conflicts 
with your neighbors, and a vile dependence on a for- 
eign power. If your leaders could succeed in estab- 
lishing a separation, what would be your situation ? 
Are you united at home — are you free from the 



139 



apprehension of civil discord, with all its fearful con- 
sequences ? Do our neighboring republics, every 
day suffering some new revolution or contending 
with some new insurrection — do they excite your 
envy ? But the dictates of a high duty oblige me 
solemnly to announce that you can not succeed. 
The laws of the United States must be executed. I 
have no discretionary power on the subject — my 
duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitution. 
Those who told you that you might peaceably 
prevent their execution, deceived you — they could 
not have been deceived themselves. They know 
that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the 
^ execution of the laws, and they know that such 
opposition must be repelled. Their object is dis- 
union ; but be not deceived by names ; disunion, by 
armed force, is treason. Are you really ready to 
incur this guilt? If you are, on the head of the 
instigators of the act be the dreadful consequences — 
on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may fall 
the punishment — on your unhappy State will inev- 
itably fall all the evils of the conflict you force upon 
the government of your country. It cannot accede 
to the mad project of disunion of which you would 
be the first victims — its first magistrate can not, if he 
would, avoid the performance of his duty — the con- 
sequence must be fearful for you, distressing to your 



140 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

fellow-citizens here, and to the friends of good gov- 
ernment throup:hout the world. Its enemies have 
beheld our prosperity with a vexation they could not 
conceal — it was a standing refutation of their slavish 
doctrines, and they will point to our discord with the 
triumph of malignant joy. It is yet in your power 
to disappoint them. There is yet time to show that 
the descendants of the Pinckneys, the Sumpters, the 
Eutledges, and of the thousand other names which 
adorn the pages of your revolutionarj^ history, will 
not abandon that Union to support w^hich so many 
of them fought and bled and died. I adjure you, as 
you honor their memory — as you love the cause of 
freedom, to which they dedicated their lives — as you 
prize the peace of your country, the lives of its best 
citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your 
steps. Snatch from the archives of your State the 
disorganizing edict of its convention — bid its mem- 
bers to re-assemble and promulgate the decided 
expressions of your will to remain in the path which 
alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity, and 
honor — tell them that compared to disunion, all 
other evils are light, because that brings with it an 
accumulation of all — declare that you will never take 
the Held unless the star-spangled banner of your 
country shall float over you — that you will not be 
stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned 



141 

while you live, as the authors of the first attack on 
the Constitution of jour country ! — its destroyers you 
can not be. You may disturb its peace— you may 
interrupt the course of its prosperity — you may 
cloud its reputation for stability — ^but its tranquillity 
will be restored, its prosperity will return, and the 
stain upon its national character will be transferred 
and remain an eternal blot on the memory of those 
who caused the disorder. 

Fellow-citizens of the United States ! the threat of 
unhallowed disunion — the names of those, once re- 
spected, by whom it is uttered — the array of military 
force to support it — denote the approach of a crisis in 
our affairs on which the continuance of our unexam- 
pled prosperity, our political existence, and perhaps 
that of all free governments, may depend. The con- 
jecture demanded a free, a full, and explicit enuncia- 
tion, not only of my intentions, but of my principles 
of action ; and as the claim was asserted of a right by 
a State to annul the laws of the Union, and even to 
secede from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my 
opinions in relation to the origin and form of our 
government, and the construction I give to the 
instrument by which it was created, seemed to be 
proper. Having the fullest confidence in the just- 
ness of the legal and constitutional opinion of my 
duties which has been expressed, I rely with equal 



142 KET-NOTSS OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

confidence on jour undivided support in mj deter- 
mination to execute the laws — to preserve the Union 
bj all constitutional means — to arrest, if possible, by 
moderate but firm measures, the necessity of a 
recourse to force ; and, if it be the will of Heayen 
that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for 
the shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon 
our land, that it be not called down by any offensive 
act on the part of the United States. 

Fellow-citizens ! the momentous case is before 
you. On your undivided support of your govern- 
ment depends the decision of the great question it 
involves, whether your sacred Union will be pre- 
served, and the blessing it secures to us as one people 
shall be perpetuated. 'No one can doubt that the 
unanimity with which that decision will be expressed, 
will be such as to inspire new confidence in republi- 
can institutions, and that the prudence, the wisdom, 
and the courage which it will bring to their defense, 
will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to 
our children. 

May the Great Buler of nations grant that the 
signal blessings with which He has favored ours may 
not, by the madness of party, or personal ambition, 
be disregarded and lost, and may His wise provi- 
dence bring thoF.e who have produced this crisis to 
see the folly, before they feel the misery, of civil 



143 



strife, and inspire a returning veneration for that 
Union which, if we may dare to penetrate His 
designs. He has chosen, as the only means of attain- 
ing the high destinies to which we may reasonably 
aspire. 

In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of 
the United States to be hereunto affixed, having 
signed the same with my hand. 
Done at the City of Washington, this 10th day of 
December, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and thirty-two, and of the inde- 
pendence of the United States the fifty-seventh. 

Andeew Jackson. 
Bj the President. 
Edw. LrviNGsoE, Secretary of State. 



144 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 



MONEOE DOOTEINE. 

EXTEACT FEOM PRESIDENT MONBOe's ANNUAL MESSAGE, WASn- 
INGTON, DEO. 2, 1823. 

The citizens of the United States cherish senti- 
ments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and 
happiness of their fellow-men on that side of the 
Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers, in 
matters relating to themselves, we have never taken 
any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to 
do. It is only when our rights are invaded, or seri- 
ously menaced, that we resent injuries or make prep- 
arations for our defence. With the movements in 
this hemisphere, we are, of necessity, more immedi- 
ately connected, and by causes which must be 
obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. 
The political system of the allied powers is essen- 
tially different, in this respect, from that of America. 
This difference proceeds from that which exists in 
their respective Governments. And to the defence 
of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of 
so much blocd and treasure, and matured by the 
wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under 



MONROE DOCTRINE. 145 

"whicli we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this 
whole natioiJ is devoted. 

We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amic- 
able relations existing between the United States and 
those powers, to declare, that we should consider 
any attempt on their part to extend their system to 
any portion of this hemisphere, as dangerous to our 
peace and safety. 

With the existing colonies or dependencies of any 
European power, we have not interfered, and shall 
not interfere. But, with the Governments who 
have declared their independence, and maintained 
it, and whose independence we have, on great con- 
sideration, and on just principles, acknowledged, we 
could not view any interposition for the purpose of 
oppressing them, or controlling, in any other man- 
ner, their destiny, by any European power, in any 
other light than as the manifestation of an un- 
friendly disposition towards the United States. 

In the war between those new Governments and 
Spain, we declared our neutrality at the time of 
their recognition, and to this we have adhered, and 
shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall 
occur, which, in the judgment of the competent au- 
thorities of this Government, shall make a corres- 
ponding change on the part of the United States, 
indispensable to their security. 



146 KEY-NOTES OF AMEKICAN LIBEBTT. 



THE DEED SCOTT DECISION. 

DEED SOOTT, PLAnfTIFF EST EEEOE, VS. JOHN F. A. SANDFOED. 

This case was brought up by writ of error, from 
the Circuit Court of the United States for the district 
of Missouri. 

It was an action of trespass vi et armis instituted 
in the Circuit Court by Scott against Sanford. 

Prior to the institution of the present suit, an 
action was brought by Scott for his freedom in the 
Circuit Court of St. Louis county, (State court,) 
where there was a verdict and judgment in liis favor. 
On a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the 
State, the judgment below was reversed, and the 
case remanded to the Circuit Court, where it was 
continued to await the decision of the case now in 
question. 

The declaration of Scott contained three counts : 
one, that Sandford had assaulted the plaintiff; one, 



THE DEED SCOTT DECISION. 147 

that he had assaulted Harriet Scott, his wife ; and 
one, that he had assaulted Eh'za Scott and Lizzie 
Scott, his children. 

jSandford appeared, and filed the following plea : 

J 



Deed Scott, 

vs. ^ Plea to the Jurisdiction of the Court. 

John F. A. Sandfoed. 



April Term, 1854. 

And the said John F. A. Sandford, in his own 
proper person, comes and says that this court ought 
not to have or take further cognizance of the action 
aforesaid, because he savs that said cause of action, 
and each and every of them, (if any such have ac- 
crued to the said Dred Scott,) accrued to the said 
Dred Scott out of the jurisdiction of this court, and 
exclusively within the jurisdiction of the courts of 
the State of Missouri, for that, to wit : the said plain- 
tiff, Dred Scott, is not a citizen of the State of Mis- 
souri, as alleged in his declaration, because he is a 
negro of African descent ; his ancestors were of pure 
African blood, and were brought into this country 
and sold as negro slaves, and this the said Sandford 
is ready to verify. Wherefore he prays judgment 
whether this court can or will take further cogni- 
zance of the action aforesaid. 

John F. A. Sandford. 



148 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

To tliis plea there was a demurrer in the usual 
form, which was argued in April, 1854, when the 
court gave judgment that the demurrer should be 
sustained. 

In. May, 1854, the defendant, in pursuance of an 
agreement between counsel, and with the leave of 
the court, pleaded in bar of the action : 

1. ]^ot guilty. 

2. That the plaintiff was a negro slave, the law- 
ful property of the defendant, and, as such, the de- 
fendant gently laid his hands upon him, and thereby 
had only restrained him, as the defendant had a right 
to do. 

3. That with respect to the wife and daughters 
of the plaintiff, in the second and third counts of the 
declaration mentioned, the defendant had, as to them, 
only acted in the same manner, and in virtue of the 
same lef]:al riiJ^ht. 

In the first of these pleas, the plaintiff joined 
issue ; and to the second and third filed replications 
alleging that the defendant, of his own wrong and 
without the cause in his second and third pleas 
alleged, committed the trespasses, etc. 

The counsel then filed the following agreed state- 
ment of facts, viz.: 

In the year 1834, the plaintiff was a negro slave 
belonging to Dr. Emerson, who was a surgeon in the 



THE DEED SCOTT DECISION. 149 

army of the United States. In that year, 1834, said 
Dr. Emerson took the plaintiff from the State of 
Missouri to the military post at Kock Island in the 
State of Illinois, and held him there as a slave until 
the month of April or May, 1836. At the time last 
mentioned, said Dr. Emerson removed the plantiff 
from said military post at Rock Island to the mili- 
tary post at Fort Snelling, situate on the west bank 
of the Mississippi river, in the Territory known as 
Upper Louisiana, acquired by the United States of 
France, and situate north of the latitude of thirty-six 
degrees thirty minutes north, and north of the State 
of Missouri. Said Dr. Emerson held the plaintiff in 
slavery at said Fort Snelling, from said last-men- 
tioned date until the year 1838. 

In the year 1835, Harriet, who is named in the 
second count of the plaintiff's declaration, was the 
negro slave of Major Taliaferro, who belonged to the 
army of the United States. In that year, 1835, said 
Major Taliaferro took said Harriet to said Fort 
Snelling, a military post, situated as hereinbefore 
stated, and kept her there as a slave until the 
year 1836, and then sold and delivered her as a 
slave at said Fort Snelling unto the said Dr. Em- 
erson hereinbefore named. Said Dr. Emerson held 
said Harriet in slavery at said Fort Snelling until 
the year 1838. 



150 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTT. 

In the year 1836, the plaintiff and said Harriet, 
at said Fort Snelling, with the consent of said Dr. 
Emerson, who then claimed to be their master and 
owner, intermarried, and took each other for hus- 
band and wife. Eliza and Lizzie, named in the third 
count of the plaintiff's declaration, are the fruit of 
that marriage. Eliza is about fourteen years old, 
and was born on board the steamboat Gipsey, north 
of the north line of the State of Missouri, and upon 
the river Mississippi. Lizzie is about seven years old, 
and was born in the State of Missom-i, at the mili- 
tary post called Jefferson Barracks. 

In the year 1838, said Dr. Emerson removed the 
plaintiff and said Harriet and their said daughter 
Eliza, from said Fort Snelling to the State of Mis- 
Boui-i, where they have ever since resided. 

Before the commencement of this suit, said Dr. 
Emerson sold and conveyed the plaintiff, said Har- 
riet, Eliza, and Lizzie, to the defendant, as slaves, 
and the defendant has ever since claimed to hold 
them and each of them as slaves. 

At the times mentioned in the plaintiff's declara- 
tion, the defendant clainjing to be owner as aforesaid, 
laid his hands upon said plaintiff, Harriet, Eliza, and 
Lizzie, and imprisoned them, doing in this respect, 
however, no more than what he might lawfully do if 
they were of right his slaves at such times. 



THE DRED SCOTT DECISION. 151 

Further proof may be given on the trial for either 
party. 

It is agreed that Dred Scott brought suit for his 
freedom in the Circuit Court of St. Louis county ; 
tliat there was a verdict and judgment in his favor ; 
that on a writ of error to the Supreme Court, the 
judgment below was reversed, and the same re- 
manded to the Circuit Court, where it has been con- 
tinued to await the decision of this case. 

In May, 1854, the cause went before a jury, who 
foimd the following verdict, viz.: "As to the first 
issue joined in this case, we of the jury find the de- 
fendant not guilty ; and as to the issue secondly above 
joined, we of the jury find that before and at the 
time when, &c., in the first count mentioned, the said 
Dred Scott was a negro slave, the lawful property 
of the defendant ; and as to the issue thirdly above 
joined, we, the jury, find that before and at the time 
when, &c., in the second and third counts mentioned, 
the said Harriet, wife of said Dred Scott, and Eliza 
and Lizzie, the daughters of the said Dred Scott, were 
negro slaves, the lawful property of the defendant." 

Whereupon the court gave judgment for the de- 
fendant. 

After an ineffectual motion for a new trial, the 
plaintiff filed the following bill of exceptions. 

On the trial of this cause by the jury, the plain- 



152 KBT-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

tiff, to maintain the issues on his part, read to the 
jury the following agreed statment of facts, (see 
agreement above.) Xo farther testimony was given 
to the jury by either party. Thereupon the plaintiff 
moved the court to give to the jury the following 
instruction, viz.: 

" That upon the facts agreed to by the parties, 
they ought to find for the plaintiff. The court re- 
fused to give such instruction to the jury, and the 
plaintiff, to such refusal, then and there duly ex- 
cepted." 

The court then gave the following instruction to 
the jury, on motion of the defendant : 

" The jury are instructed, that upon the facts in 
this case, the law is with the defendant." The 
plaintiff excepted to this instruction. 

Upon these exceptions, the case came up to this 
court. 

It was argued at December term, 1855, and or- 
dered to be reargued at the present term. 

The opinion of the court, as delivered by Chief 
Justice Taney, being so lengthy, we omit all but the 
summing up, to wit : 

Upon the whole, therefore, it is the judgment of 
this court, that it appears by the record before us, 
that the plaintiff in error is not a citizen of Missouri, 
in the sense in which that word is used in the Con- 



THE DRED SCOTT DECISION. 153 

stitution ; and that the Circuit Court of the United 
States, for that reason, had no jurisdiction in the 
case, and could give no judgment in it. Its judg- 
ment for the defendant must, consequently, be 
reversed, and a mandate issued, directing the suit to 
be dismissed for want of jurisdiction. 



154 KET-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETT. 



PEESIDEITTS AND VIOE-PEESIDENTS OF 
THE UNITED STATES. 

"WITH THE VOTE FOR EACH CANDIDATE FOE OFFICE. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 

First Congress, Sept. 5, 1774. Peyton Ran- 
dolpli, of Yirginia, President. Born in Virginia, in 
1*^23, died at Philadelphia, Oct. 22, 1785. Charles 
Thomson, of Pennsylvania, Secretary. Born in 
Ireland, 1730, died in Pennsylvania, Aug. 16, 1824. 

Second Congress, May 10, 1775. Peyton 
Eandolph, President. Eesigned May 24, 1776. 

John Hancock, of Massachusetts, elected his 
successor. He was born at Quincy, Mass., 1737, 
died Oct. 8, 1793. He was President of Congress 
until October, 1777. 

Henry Laurens, of Soutb Carolina, President 
from Nov. 1, 1777, to Dec. 1778. He was born at 
Charleston, S. C, 1724, died in South Carolina, 
Dec, 1792. 

John Jay, of JSTew York, President from Dec. 10, 



PEESroENTS AJ^D VICE-PEESIDENTS. 



155 



1778, to Sept. 27, 1779.^ He was born in 'New York 
City, Dec. 12, 1745, died at New York, May 17, 
1829. 

Samuel Huntingdon, of Connecticut, President 
from Sept. 28, 1779, until July 10, 1781. He was 
born in Connecticut, in 1732, died 1796. 

Thos. McKean, of Pennsylvania, President from 
July 1781, until Nov, 5, 1781. He was born in 
Pennsylvania, March 19, 1734, died at Philadelphia, 
June 24, 1817. 

John Hanson, of Maryland, President from Nov. 
5, 1781, to Nov. 4, 1782. 

Elias Boudinot, of New Jersey, President from 
Nov. 4, 1782, until Feb. 4, 1783. He was born at 
Philadelphia, May 2, 1740, died 1824. 

Thomas Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, President from 
Feb. 4, 1783, to Nov. 30, 1784. Born at Philadel- 
phia, 1744, died in the same city, Jan. 21, 1800. 

Ki chard Henry Lee, of Virginia, President from 
Nov. 30, 1784, to Nov. 23, 1785. He was born in 
Virginia, 1732, died 1794. 

John Hancock, of Massachusetts, President from 
Nov. 23, 1785, to June 6, 1786. 

Nathaniel Gorham, of Massachusetts, President 
from June 6, 1786, to Feb. 2, 1787. He was born at 
Charlestown, Mass., 1738, died June 11, 1796. 

Arthur St. Clair, of Pennsylvania, President 
from Feb. 2, 1787, to Jan. 28, 1788. He was born 
in Edinburgh, Scotland, , died in 1818. 

Cyrus Griffin, of Virginia, President from Jan, 
28, 1788, to the end of the Congress under thi 



156 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

Confederation, March 3, 1789. He was born in 
England, 1748, died in Virginia, 1810. 

UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. 

1789 to 1793. — George Washington, of Virginia, 
inaugurated as President of the United States, April 
30, 1789. He was born upon Wakefield estate, 
Virginia, Feb. 22, (11th old style,) 1732, died at 
Mount Vernon, Dec. 14, 1799. 

John Adams, of Massachusetts, Vice-President. 
jBorn at Braintree, Mass., Oct. 19, 1735, died Jalj 4, 
11826, near Quincy, Mass. 

Electoral vote. — Geo. Washington, 69 ; John 
Adams, 34 ; John Jay, l^ew York, 9 ; E. H. Har- 
rison, Maryland, 6 ; John Rutledge, South Carolina, 
6 ; John Hancock, Massachusetts, 4 ; Geo. Clinton, 
'J^ew York, 3 ; Sam'l Huntingdon, Connecticut, 2 ; 
■John Milton, Georgia, 2 ; James Armstrong, 
Georgia, 1 ; Edward Telfair, Georgia, 1 ; Benj. 
Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1 — Total, 69. Ten States 
voted, — Rhode Island, ISTew York, and Xorth Caro- 
lina not voting, not having ratified the Constitution 
in time. 

1793 to 1797.— George Washington, President, 
inaugurated March 4, 1793. 

John Adams, Vice-President. 

Electoral vote. — Geo. Washington, 132 ; John 
Adams, 77 ; Geo. Clinton, 50 ; Thos. Jefierson, Vir- 
gia, 4; Aaron Burr, N"ew York, 1.— Total, 132. 
Fifteen States voted. 



PRESIDENTS AND ^ICE-PEESIDENTS. 157 

1797 to 1801. — John, Adams President, inaugu- 
rated March 4, 1797. 

Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, Yice-President. 
Born at Shadwell, Virginia, April 13, 1743, died at 
Monticello, Virginia, July 4, 1826. 

Electoral vote. — John Adams, 71 ; Thomas 
Jefferson, 68 ; Thomas Pinckney, South Carolina, 
59 ; Aaron Burr, 30 ; Sam'l Adams, Massachusetts, 
15 ; Oliver Ellsworth, Connecticut, 11 ; Geo. Clin- 
ton, 7; John Jay, 5 ; James Iredell, North Carolina, 
3 ; George Washington, 2 ; John Henry, Maryland, 
2 ; S. Johnson, E^orth Carolina, 2 ; Charles C. 
Pinckney, South Carolina, 1. — Total 138. Sixteen 
States voting. 

1801 to 1805. — Thomas Jefferson, President, 
inaugurated March 4, 1801. 

Aaron Burr, of E'ew York Vice-President. Born 
at Newark, N. J., Feb. 6, 1756, died at Staten 
Island, K Y., Sept. 14, 1836. 

Electoral vote. — Thos. Jefferson, 73 ; Aaron 
Burr, 73 ; John Adams, 65 ; Chas. C. Pinckney, 64 ; 
John Jay 1. — Total, 13. Sixteen States voting. 

There was no choice by the Electoral colleges, and 
the election was carried into the House of Pepresen- 
tatives, and upon the 36th ballot, ten States voted for 
Jefferson, four States for Aaron Burr, and two States 
in blank. Jefferson was declared to be elected 
President, and Burr Vice-President. The Constitu- 
tion was then amended, so that the Vice-President 
was voted for separately, instead of being the second 
on the vote for President. 



158 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

1805 to 1809. — Thomas Jefferson, President, 
inaugurated March 4, 1805. 

George Clinton, of New York, Yice-President. 
He was born in Ulster county, N. Y., 1739, died in 
Washington, D. C, April 20, 1812. 

Electoral vote. — For President, Thos. Jefferson, 
162 ; Chas. Cotesworth Pincknej, 14.— Total, 176. 
Seven States voting. For Yice-President, George 
Clinton, 162; Eufus King, New York, 14. 

1809 to 1813. — James Madison, of Yirginia, 
President, inaugurated March 4, 1809. He was 
born March 16, 1751, in Prince George county, Ya., 
and died at Montpelier, Ya., June 28, 1836. 

George Clinton, of New York, Yice-President, 
until his death, April 20, 1812. 

Electoral vote. — For President, James Madi- 
Bon, 122 ; Geo. Clinton, 6 ; C. C. Pinckney, 47.— 
Total, 175. Seventeen States voting. For Yice- 
President, George Clinton, 113 ; James Madison, 3 ; 
James Monroe, Yirginia, 3 ; John Langdon, New 
Hampshire, 9 ; Rufus King, New York, 47. 

1813 to 1817. — James Madison, of Yirginia, Presi- 
dent, inaugurated March 4, 1813. 

Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, Yice-President, 
until his death, Nov. 23, 1814. He was born at 
Marblehead, Mass., July 17, 1744, and died at 
"Washington, D. C. 

Electoral vote. — For President, James Madi- 
son, 128 ; De Witt Clinton, New York, 89.— Total, 
217. Eighteen States voting. For Yice-President, 
Elbridge Gerry, 131 ; Jared Ingersoll, Pa., 86. 



PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PEE SIDENTS. 159 

1817 to 1821. — James Monroe, of Yirginia, Presi- 
dent, inaugurated March 4, 1817. He was born in 
Westmoreland county, Ya., 1759, and died in New 
York, July 4, 1831. ' 

Daniel D. Tompkins, of "New York, Yice-Presi- 
dent. Born June 21, 1774, at Fox Meadows, IS". Y., 
and died at Staten Island, June 11, 1825. 

Electoral vote. — For President, James Monroe, 
183; Kufus King, 34.— Total, 221. Nineteen States 
voting. For Yice-President, Daniel D. Tompkins, 
183; John Eager Howard, Maryland, 22; James 
Poss, Pennsylvania, 5 ; John Marshall, Yirginia, 4 ; 
Pobt. Goodloe Harper, Maryland, 3. 

1821 to 1825. — James Monroe, President, inaugu- 
rated March 4, 1821. 

Daniel D. Tompkins, Yice-President. 

Electoral vote. — For President, James Monroe, 
231 ; John Quincy Adams, Massachusetts, 1. — Total, 
232. Twenty-four States voting. For Yice-Presi- 
dent, Daniel D. Tompkins, 218 ; Richard Stockton, 
New Jersey, 8 ; Pobert G. Harper, 1 ; Pichard 
Push, Pennsylvania, 1 ; Daniel Podney, Delaware, 1. 

1825 to 1829. — John Quincy Adams, of Massa- 
chusetts, President, inaugurated March 4, 1825. He 
was born at Quincy, Massachusetts, July 11, 1767, 
and died at Washington City, Feb. 23, 1848. 

John Caldwell Calhoun, of South Carolina, Yice- 
President. Born in Abbeville district, S. C, March 
18, 1782, and died March 31, 1850, in Washington 
City. 

Popular vote. — For President, John Quincy 



160 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

Adams, 105,321 ; Andrew Jackson, Tennessee, 
162,899; Wm. H. Crawford, Georgia, 47,265; 
Henry Clay, Kentucky, 47,087. 

Electoral vote. — For President Andrew Jack- 
son, 99 ; John Quincy Adams, 84 ; Wm. H. Craw- 
ford, 41 ; Henry Clay, 37.— Total, 261. Twenty- 
four States voting. 

Tliere being no choice by the Electoral colleges, 
the vote was taken into the House of Representa- 
tives. Adams received the votes of thirteen States, 
Jackson seven, and Crawford four. John Quincy 
Adams was therefore declared elected President. 

For Yice-President, the Electoral vote was John 
C. Calhoun, South Carolina, 182 ; Nathan San- 
ford, Xew York, 30; JSTathaniel Macon, Georgia, 
24; Andrew Jackson, Tennessee, 13; Martin Yan 
Buren, I^ew York, 9 ; Henry Clay, Kentucky, 2. 

1829 to 1833. — Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, 
President, inaugurated March 4, 1829. He was 
born in Mecklenburg county, K C, March 15, 1767, 
and died at the Hermitage, Tenn., June 8, 1845. 

John Caldwell Calhoun, Yice-President, until his 
resignation, Dec. 28, 1832. 

Popular vote.— For President, Andrew Jackson, 
650,028 ; John Quincy Adams, 512,158. 

Electoral vote. — For President, Andrew Jack- 
son, 178 ; J. Q. Adams, 83.— Total, 261. Twenty- 
four States voting. 

For Yice-President, John C. Calhoun, 171 ; 
Eichard Rush, Pennsylvania, 83 ; Wm. Smith, 
South Carolina, 7. 



PRESroENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS. 101 

1833 to 1837 — Andrew Jackson, President, 
inaugurated March 4, 1833. 

Martin Van Buren, of Kew York, Vice-Presi- 
dent. He was born at Kinderhook, N. Y., Dec. 5, 
1782. 

Popular vote. — For President, Andrew Jackson, 
687,502 ; Henry Clay, 550,189 ; Opposition, (John 
riojd, Virginia, and Win. Wirt, Maryland,) 33,108. 

Electoral vote. — For President, Andrew Jack- 
son, 219 ; Henry Clay, 49 ; John Floyd, 11 ; Wm. 
Wirt, 7.— Total 288. Twenty-four States voting. 

For Yice-President, Martin Yan Buren, 189 ; 
John Sergeant, Pennsylvania, 49 ; Williaru Wilkins, 
Pennsylvania, 30 ; Henry Lee, Massachusetts, 11 ; 
Amos Ellmaker, Pennsylvania, 7. 

1837 to 1841. — ^Martin Yan Buren, President, 
inaugurated March 4, 1837. 

Pichard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, Yice-Presi- 
dent. He was born in 1780, and died Nov. 19, 1850. 

Popular vote. — For President, Martin Yan 
Buren, 762,149 ; Opposition, (Wm. H. Harrison, 
Hugh L. White, Daniel Webster, W. P. Mangnm,) 
736,736. 

Electoral vote. — For President, Martin Yan 
Buren, 170 ; Wm. H. Harrison, Ohio, 73 ; Hugh L. 
White, Tennessee, 26 ; Daniel Webster, Massachu- 
setts, 14 ; W. P. Mangum, 11.— Total, 294. Twenty- 
six States voting. 

For Yice-President, Pichard M. Johnson, Ken- 
tucky, 147 ; Francis Granger, New York, 77 ; John 
Tyler, Yir^inia, 47 ; Wm. Smith, Alabama, 23. 



162 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

184:1 to 18i5 — Wm. Henry Harrison, of Ohio, 
President, until his death, at "Washington, April 4, 
1841. He was inaugurated March 4, 1841. He 
was born in Berkeley county, Ya., Feb. 9, 1773. 

John Tyler, of Virginia, Yice-President. He 
was born April, 1790, at Green way, Charles City 
county, Ya. 

John Tyler, of Yirginia, became President by the 
death of W. H. Harrison. He took the oath of 
office April 6, 1841. 

Popular VOTE — Nov. 1840. — For President, Wm. 
Henry Harrison, 1,274,783; Martin Yan Buren, 
1,128,702 ; James G. Birney, New York, (Abolition,) 
7,609. 

Electoral vote. — For President, W. H. Harri- 
son, 234; M. Yan Buren, 60.— Total, 294. Twenty- 
six States voting. 

For Yice-President, John Tyler, 234; Eichard 
M. Johnson, 48 ; L. W. Tazewell, South Carolina, 
11 ; James K. Polk, Tennessee, 1. 

1845 to 1849. — James Knox Polk, of Tennessee, 
President, inaugurated March 4, 1845. He was 
born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, Nov. 
2, 1795, and died at Nashville, Tennessee, June 15, 
1849. 

George Mifflin Dallas, of Pennsylvania, Yice- 
President. Born in Philadelphia, July 10, 1792. 

Popular vote. — For President, James K. Polk, 
1,335,834; Henry Clay, 1,297,033; James G. 
Birney, 62,290. 

Electoral vote. — For President, James K. Polk, 



PEESIDENTS A2JD VICE-PEESIDENTS. 163 

170; Henry Clay, 105.— Total, 275. Twenty-six 
States voting. 

For Yice-President, George M. Dallas, 170; 
Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, 105. 

184:9 to 1853. — Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, 
President, inaugurated March 4, 1849. Born in 
Virginia, 1784, died in Washington City, July 9, 
1850. 

Millayd Fillmore, of 'New York, Yice-President. 
Born in Locke township, Cayuga county, K. Y., 
Jan. 7, 1800. 

Millard Fillmore, President, after the death of 
Zachary Taylor, July 9, 1850. He took the oath of 
office, July 10, 1850. 

Popular vote. — For President, Zachary Taylor, 
1,362,031; Lewis Cass, of Michigan, 1,222,445; 
Martin Yan Buren, (Free-Soil,) 291,455. 

Electoral vote. — For President, Zachary Taylor, 
163 ; Lewis Cass, 127.— Total, 290. Thirty States 
voting. 

For Yice-President, Millard Fillmore, 163 ; Wil- 
liam O. Butler, Kentucky, 127. 

1853 to 1857.— Franklin Pierce, of New Hamp- 
shire, President, inaugurated March 5, 1853. He 
was born at Hillsboro, IST. IL, Nov. 23, 1804. 

William K. King, of Alabama, Yice-President. 
He was born in North Carolina, April 7, 1786, died 
at Cahawba, Ala., April 18, 1853. 

Popular vote. — For President, Franklin Pierce, 
1,590,490; Winiield Scott, 1,378,589; John P. 
Hale, New Hampshire, (Abolition,) 157,296. 



164 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

Electoral vote. — For President, Franklin 
Pierce, 254 ; Winfield Scott of New Jersey, 42.— 
Total, 296. Thirty-one States voting. 

For Yice President, Wm. K. King, 254 ; Wm. A. 
Graham, JSTorth Carolina, 42. 

1857 to 1861. — James Buchanan, of Pennsyl- 
vania, President. He was born at Stony Batter, 
Franklin county, Penn., April 22, 1791. 

John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, Yice-Presi- 
dent. Born near Lexington, Kentucky, Jan. 21, 
1820. 

Popular VOTE. — For President, James Buchanan, 
Pemocratic.) 1,832,232 ; John C. Fremont, Cali- 
fornia, (Republican,) 1,341,514; Millard Fillmore, 
JSTew York, (American,) 874,707. 

Electoral vote. — For President, James Bu- 
chanan, 174 ; John C. Fremont, 109 ; Millard Fill- 
more, 8. — Total, 291. Thirty-one States voting. 

For Yice-President, John Breckenridge, 174; 
"Wm. L. Dayton, 'New Jersey, 109 ; A. J. Donelson, 
Tennessee, 8.— Total, 291. 

1861 to 1865. — Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, 
President, inaugurated March 4, 1861. He was 
born near Muldraugh's Hill, Hardin county, Ky., 
Feb. 1809. 

Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, Yice-President. 
He was born at Paris, Oxford county. Me., Aug. 27, 
1809. 

Popular vote. — For President, Abraham Lin- 
coln, (Republican,) 1,857,610 ; Stephen A. Douglas, 
of Illinois, (Democratic,) 1,365,976 ; John C. Breck- 



PEESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS. 165 

enridge, of Kentiicky, (Democratic,) 847,953 ; John 
Bell, of Tennessee, (Constitutional Union,) 590,631. 

Electoral vote. — For President, Abraham Lin- 
coln, 180 ; John C. Breckinridge, 72 ; John Bell, 
39 ; Stephen A. Douglas, 12.— Total, 291. Thirty- 
three States voting. 

For Yice-President, Hannibal Hamlin, Maine, 
180 ; Joseph Lane, Oregon, 72 ; Edward Everett, 
Massachusetts, 39 ; Herschel Y. Johnson, Georgia, 
12. 

1865 to 1869. — Abraham Lincoln, President, 
inaugurated March 4, 1865. 

Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, Yice-President. 

Popular vote. — For President, Abraham Lincoln, 
(Eepublican,) 3,213,035; George B. McClellan, 
(Democrat,) 1,811,754. 

Upon the assassination of President. Lincoln, 
April 14, 1865, Andrew Johnson, then Yice-Presi- 
dent, assumed the Presidency, and Lafayette S. 
Foster, of Norwich, Conn., President of the Senate, 
became Yice-President. 



166 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 



POPULAE NAMES OF STATES. 



Yirginia, the Old Dominion. 
Massachusetts, the Bay State. 
Maine, the Border State. 
Rhode Island, Little Rhodj. 
New York, the Empire State. 
'New Hampshire, the Granite State. 
Vermont, the Green Mountain State. 
Connecticut, the Land of Steady Habits. 
Pennsylvania, the Keystone State. 
JSTorth Carolina, the Old ISTorth State. 
Ohio, the Buckeye State. 
South Carolina, the Palmetto State. 
Michigan, the Wolverine State. 
Kentucky, the Corn-Cracker. 
Delaware, the Blue Hen's Chicken. 
Missouri, the Puke State. 
Indiana, the Hoosier State. 
Illinois, the Sucker State. 
Iowa, the Hawkeye State. 
Wisconsin, the Badger State. 
Florida, the Peninsular State. 
Texas, the Lone Star State. 



BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION. 167 



BATTLES OF THE EEVOLUTION. 

The following statistics show the losses of life in 
the various battles of the American Revolution, also 
the dates of the several battles : 

Britisli American 

Loss. Loss. 

Lexington, April 15, 1775 273 84 

Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775 1054 456 

Flatbush, August 12, 1776 400 200 

White Plains, August 26, 1776 400 400 

Trenton, December 25, 1776 1000 9 

Prmceton, January 5, 1777 400 100 

Hubbardstown, August 17, 1777 800 800 

Bennington, August 16, 1777 800 100 

Brandywine, September 11, 1777 500 1100 

Stillwater, September 17, 1777 600 350 

Germantown, October 5, 1777 600 1250 

Saratoga, October 17, 1777* 5752 

Red Hook, October 22, 1777 500 32 

Monmouth, June 25, 1778 400 130 

Rhode Island, August 27, 1778 260 214 

Briar Creek, March 30, 1779 13 400 

Stony Point, July 15, 1779 600 100 

Camden, August 16, 1779 375 610 

Kmg's Mountain, October 1, 1780 950 66 

Cowpens, January 17, 1781 800 72 

Guilford C. H., March 15, 1781 532 400 

Hobkirk's Hill, April 25, 1781 400 460 

Eutaw Springs, September, 1781 1000 550 

Yorktown, October, 1781* 7072 

Total 25,481 7913 

* Surrendered. 



1(58 KEY-NOTES OF AMBEIOAN LtBEETT. 



NEUTEALITY LAW OF THE UNITED STATES, 

A3 AMENDED AND APPROVED BY CONGEESS, JULY 26, 1866. 

A Bill more effectually to preserve the neutral rela- 
tions of the United States. 

Be it enacted^ c&c, That if any citizen of the 
United States shall, within the territory or jurisdic- 
tion thereof, accept and exercise a commission to 
serve a foreign prince, State, colony, district, or peo- 
ple in vrar by land or by sea against any prince, 
State, colony, district or people with whom the 
United States are at peace, the person so offending 
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall 
on conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not 
exceeding $2,000 and imprisonment not exceeding 
two years, or either, at the discretion of the Court in 
which such offender may be convicted. 

Seo. 2. And he it further enacted, That if any 



NEUTRALITY LAW. 169 

peraon shall, within the territory or jurisdiction of 
the United States enlist, or enter himself, or hire or 
retain another person to enlist or enter himself, or to 
go beyond the limits or jurisdiction of the United 
States, with intent to be enlisted or entered into the 
service of any foreign prince. State, colony, district 
or people as a soldier, or as a marine or seaman on 
board of any vessel-of-war, letter-of-marque or priva- 
teer, every person so offending shall be deemed guilty 
of a misdemeanor, and shall upon conviction therefor 
be punished by fine not exceeding $1,000, and im- 
prisonment not exceeding two years, or either of 
them, at the discretion of the Court, in case such 
offender shall be convicted; provided that this act 
shall not be construed to extend to any subject or 
citizen of any foreign prince. State, colony, district 
or people, who shall transiently be within the United 
States, and shall be on board of any vessel of war, 
letter-of-marque or privateer, which, at the time of 
its arrival within the United States, was fitted and 
equipped as such, enlist or enter himself, and hire or 
retain another subject or citizen of the same foreign 
prince, State, colony, district or people, who is tran- 
siently in the United States, to enlist or enter himself 
to serve such foreign prince, State, colony, district or 
people, on board such vessel of war, letter-of-marque 
or privateer, if the United States shall then be at 



170 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

peace with sucli foreign prince, State, colony, district 
or people. 

Sec. 3. And he it further enacted^ That if any 
person shall within the limits of the United States fit 
out and arm or attempt to fit out and arm, or pro- 
cure to be fitted out and armed, or shall knowingly 
be concerned in the furnishing, fitting out and arm- 
ing of any ship or vessel %ith intent that such ship 
or vessel shall be employed in the service of any for- 
eign prince, State, colony, district or people, to cruise 
or commit hostilities against the subjects, citizens or 
property of any foreign prince. State, or any colony, 
district or people with whom the United States are 
at peace, or shall issue or deliver a commission within, 
the territory or jurisdiction of the United States for 
any ship or vessel to the intent that she may be em- 
ployed as aforesaid, or shall have on board any per- 
son or persons who shall have been enlisted, or shall 
have engaged to enlist or serve or shall be departing 
from the jurisdiction of the United States with intent 
to enlist or serve in contravention of the provisions 
of this act, every person so offending shall be deen.ed 
guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction 
thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding $3,000, 
and imprisonment not exceeding three years, or 
either of them, at the discretion of the Court in 
which such offender shall be convicted ; and every 



NEUTEALITY LAW. 171 

such ship and vessel, with her tackle, apparel and 
furniture, together with all materials, arms, ammu- 
nition and stores which may have been procured for 
the building and equipment thereof, shall be forfeited 
to the United States of America. 

Sec. 4. And he it ftcrther enacted^ That it shall 
be lawful for any Collector of the Customs who is by 
law empowered to make seizures for any forfeiture 
incurred under any of the laws of Customs, to seize 
such ships and vessels in such places and in such 
manner in which the officers of the Customs are em- 
powered to make seizures under the law for the col- 
lection and protection of the revenue, and that every 
such ship and vessel, with the tackle, apparel and 
furture, together with all the materials, arms, ammu- 
nition and stores which may belong to or be on board 
such ship or vessel, may be prosecuted or condemned 
for the violation of the provisions of this act in like 
manner as ships or vessels may be prosecuted and 
condemned for any breach of the laws made for the 
collection and protection of the revenue. 

Sec. 5. And he it further enacted^ That if any 
person shall within the territory or jurisdiction of the 
United States, increase or augment, or procure to be 
increased or augmented, or shall knowingly be con- 
cerned in increasing or augmenting the force of any 
ship of war, or cruiser, or other armed vessel, which 



172 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

at the time of her arrival within the United States 
was a ship of war, or cruiser, or armed vessel in the 
service of any foreign prince, State, colony, district 
or people, or belonged to the subjects or citizens of 
any such prince. State, colony, district or people, the 
same being at war with any foreign prince. State, 
colony, district or people with whom the United 
States are at peace, by adding to the number of guns 
of such vessel, or by changing those on board of her 
for gnns of a larger calibre, or by addition thereto of 
any equipment solely applicable to war, or shall 
have on board any person or persons who shall have 
enlisted, or engaged to enlist or serve, or who shall 
be departing from the jurisdiction of the United 
States with intent to enlist or serve in contravention 
of the provisions of this act ; every person so offend- 
ing shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and 
shall upon conviction thereof be punished by fine or 
imprisonment, or either of them, at the discretion of 
the court in which such offender shall be convicted. 

Sec. 6. And he it further enacted^ That the Dis- 
trict Courts shall take cognizance of all complaints, 
informations, indictments, or other prosecutions, by 
whomsoever instituted, in cases of captures made 
within the waters of the United States or within a 
marine league of the coasts or shores thereof 

Sec. 7. And he it further enacted^ That in every 



NEUTRALITY LAW. 173 

case in which a vessel shall be fitted out and armed, 
or in whicli the force of any vessel of war, cruiser, or 
other armed vessel shall be increased or augmented, 
in every case of the capture of a ship or vessel within 
the jurisdiction or protection of the United States, as 
before defined, and in every case in which any pro- 
cess issuing out of any court of the United States 
shall be disobeyed or resisted by any person or per- 
sons having the custody of any vessel of war, cruiser 
or other armed vessel of any prince or State, or of 
any colony, district or people, or of any subjects or 
citizens of any foreign prince, State, or of any colony, 
district or people in any such case, it shall be lawful 
for the President of the United States, or such other 
person as he shall have empowered for that purpose 
to employ such part of the land and naval forces of 
the United States or of the militia thereof, for the 
purpose of taking of and detaining any such ship or 
vessel with her prize or prizes, if any, in order to 
the execution of the prohibition or penalties of this 
act, and to the restoring the prize or prizes in the 
cases in which restoration shall have been adjudged. 
Sec. 8. And he it futher enacted, That it shall 
be lawful for the President of the United States, or 
such person as he shall empower for that purpose, 
to employ such part of the land and naval forces of 
the United States, or of the militia thereof, as shall 



174 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

be necessary to compel any foreign ship or vessel to 
depart the United States in all cases in which, by 
the laws of nations or the treaties of the United 
States they ought not to remain within the United 
States. 

Sec. 9. And "he it further enacted^ That offences 
made punishable by the provisions of this act, com- 
mitted by citizens of the United States, beyond the 
jurisdiction of the Uuited States, may be prosecuted 
and tried before any court having jurisdiction of the 
offences prohibited by this act. 

Sec. 10. And le it further enacted^ That noth- 
ing in this act shall be so construed as to prohibit 
citizens of the United States from selling vessels, 
ships or steamers built within the limits thereof, or 
materials or munitions of war, the growth or product 
of the same, to inhabitants of other countries, or to 
Governments not at war with the United States : 
provided that the operation of this section of this act 
shall be suspended by the President of the United 
States with regard to anj^ classes of purchases, when- 
ever the United States shall be engaged in war, or 
whenever the maintenance of friendly relations with 
any foreign nation may in his judgment require it. 

Sec. 11. And he it further enacted^ That noth- 
ing in the foregoing act shall be construed to prevent 
the prosecution or punishment of treason, or any 



NEUTRALITY LAW. 175 

piracy or other felony defined by the laws of the 
United States. 

Sec. 12. And he it further enacted^ That all acts 
and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of 
this act or inflicting any further or other penalty or 
forfeiture than are hereinbefore provided for. The 
acts forbidden herein are hereby repealed. 



176 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBBRTT. 



POPULATION OF TEE UNITED STATES. 



States. 1850. 1860. 

Alabama 771,623 964,296 

Arkansas 209,897 435,427 

California 92,597 380,015 

Connecticut 370,792 460,151 

Delaware 91,532 112,218 

Florida 87,445 140,439 

Georgia 906,185 1,057,327 

Illinoig 851,470 1,711,753 

Indiana 988,416 1,350,479 

Iowa 192,214 674,948 

Kansas 107,710 

Kentucky 982,405 1,155,713 

Louisiana 517,762 709,433 

Maine 583,169 628,276 

Maryland 583,034 687,034 

Massachusetts 994, 514 1, 231, 065 

Michigan 397,654 749,112 

Minnesota 6,077 162,022 

Mississipi 606,026 791,395 

Missoui-i 682,044 1,173,317 

New Hampshire 317,976 326,072 

New Jersey 489,555 672,031 

New York 3,097,394 3,887,542 

North Carolma 869,039 992,667 

Ohio 1,980,329 2,339,599 



SLAVE POPULATION. 177 

States, 1850. 1860. 

Oregon 12,093 52,464 

Pennsylvania 2,311,786 2,906,370 

Rhode Island 147, 545 174, 621 

South Carolina 668, 507 703, 812 

Tennessee 1,002,717 1,109,847 

Texas 212,592 601,039 

Vermont 314,120 315,116 

Virginia 1,421,661 1,596,083 

Wisconsin 305,391 775,873 

Tebeitoetes, etc. 

Colorado 34,197 

Dakotah 4,839 

Nebraska 28,842 

Nevada 6,857 

New Mexico 61,547 93,541 

Utah 11,380 40,295 

Washington 1,201 11,578 

District of Columbia 51, 687 75, 076 



Total 23,191,876 31,429,891 



SLAVE POPULATION IN THE U. S. IN 1860. 

States. 1850. 1860. 

Alabama 342,844 435,132 

Arkansas 47,100 111,104 

Delaware 2,290 1,798 

Florida 39,310 61,753 

Georgia 381,682 462,230 

Kentucky' 210,981 225,490 

Louisiana 244,809 332,520 

Maryland ' 90,308 87,188 

Mississippi 309,878 436,696 

Missouri 87,422 114,965 



178 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

States. 1850. 1860. 

North Carolina 288,548 331,081 

South CaroUna 384,984 402,541 

Tennessee 239,459 275,784 

Texas 68,161 180.388 

Virgmia 472,528 490,887 

Nebraska (Territory) 10 

Utah " 29 

New Mexico " 26 24 

District of Columbia 8, 687 3, 1 81 



Total 8, 204, 077 3, 952, 801 



STATISTICS OF SLAVERY BEFORE THE 
REVOLUTION. 

AMEEIOAN SLAVEET IN 1715. 

In the reign of George I., the ascertained popula- 
tion of the Continental Colonies was as follows : 

White Men. Negro Slaves. 

New Hampshire 9,500 150 

Massachusetts 94,000 2,000 

Rhode Island 7,500 500 

Connecticut 46,000 1,500 

New York 27,000 4,000 

Pennsylvania 43,300 2,500 

New Jersey 21,000 1,500 

Maryland 40,700 9,400 

Virginia 72,000 23,000 

North Carolina 7,500 3,700 

South Carolina 6,250 10,500 

Total 375,000 68,550 



SPEECH OF HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 179 



SPEECH OF HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 

DELIVKKED AT CHICAGO, MAY IST, 1861. 

Mr. Chairman : I thank you for the kind terms 
in which you have been pleased to welcome me. I 
thank the Committee and citizens of Chicago for this 
grand and imposing reception. I beg you to believe 
that I will not do you nor myself the injustice to 
believe this magnificent ovation is personal homage 
to myself. I rejoice to know that it expresses your 
devotion to the Constitution, the Union, and the flag 
of our country. (Cheers.) 

I will not conceal gratification at the uncontro- 
vertible test this vast audience presents — that what 
political differences or party questions may have 
divided us, yet you all had a conviction that when 
the country should be in danger, my loyalty could be 
relied on. That the present danger is imminent, no 
man can conceal. If war must come — if the bayonet 
must be used to maintain the Constitution — I can 



180 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

say before God my conscience ia clean. I have 
struggled long for a peaceful solution of the difficulty. 
I have not only tendered those States what was 
theirs of right, but I have gone to the very extreme 
of magnanimity. 

The return we receive is war, armies marched 
upon our capital, obstructions and dangers to our 
navigation, letters of marque to invite pirates to prey 
upon our commerce, a concerted movement to blot 
out the United States of America from the map of 
the globe. The question is. Are we to maintain the 
country of our fathers, or allow it to be stricken 
down by those who, when they can no longer govern, 
threaten to destroy ? 

What cause, what excuse do disunionists give us 
for breaking up the best Government on which the 
sun of heaven ever shed its rays ? They are dissatis- 
fied with the result of a Presidential election. Did 
they never get beaten before ? Are we to resort to 
the sword when we get defeated at the ballot box ? 
I understand it that the voice of the people expressed 
in the mode appointed by the Constitution must 
command the obedience of every citizen. They 
assume, on the election of a particular candidate, 
that their rights are not safe in the Union. What 
evidence do they present of this ? I defy any man 
to show any act on which it is based. What act has 



SPEECH OF HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 181 

been omitted to be done ? I appeal to these assem- 
bled thousands that so far as the constitutional rights 
of the Southern States, I will say the constitutional 
rights of slaveholders, are concerned, nothing has 
been done, and nothing omitted, of which they can 
complain. 

There has never been a time from the day that 
"Washington was inaugurated first President of these 
United States, when the rights of the Southern 
States stood firmer under the laws of the land than 
they do now ; there never was a time when they had 
not as good a cause for disunion as they have to-day. 
What good cause have they now that has not existed 
under every Administration ? 

If they say the Territorial question — now, for the 
first time, there is no act of Congress prohibiting 
slavery anywhere. If it be the non-enforcement of 
the laws, the only complaints that I have heard have 
been of the too vigorous and faithful fulfilment of 
the Fugitive Slave Law. Then what reason have 
they ? 

The slavery question is a mere excuse. The 
election of Lincoln is a mere pretext. The present 
secession movement is the result of an enormous con- 
spiracy formed more than a year since— formed by 
leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than 
twelve months ago. 



182 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTT. 

They use the Slavery question as a means to aid 
the accomplishment of their ends. They desired the 
election of a Northern candidate, by a sectional vote, 
in order to show that the two sections cannot live 
together. When the history of the two years from 
the Lecompton charter down to the Presidential 
election shall be written, it will be shown that the 
scheme was deliberately made to break up this 
Union. 

They desired a IS^orthern Republican to be elected 
by a purely IN^orthern vote, and then assign this fact 
as a reason why the sections may not longer live 
together. If the disunion candidate in the late Presi- 
dential contest had carried the united South, their 
scheme was, the Northern candidate successful, to 
seize the Capital last spring, and by a united South 
and divided North hold it. That scheme was 
defeated in the defeat of the disunion candidate in 
several of the Southern States. 

But this is no time for a detail of causes. The 
conspiracy is now known. Armies have been raised, 
war is levied to accomplish it. There are only two 
sides to the question. Every man must be for the 
United States or against it. There can be no neu- 
trals in this war ; only patriots — or traitors. 

Thank God, Illinois is not divided on this ques- 
tion. (Cheers.) I know they expected to present a 



SPEECH OF HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 183 

united South against a divided JSTorth. They hoped 
in the Northern States, party questions would bring 
civil war between Democrats and Eepublicans, when 
the South would step in with her cohorts, aid one 
party to conquer the other, and then make easy prey 
of the victors. Their scheme was carnage and civil 
war in the North. 

There is but one way to defeat this. In Illinois 
it is being so defeated by closing up the ranks. War 
will thus be prevented on our own soil. While there 
was a hope of peace, I was ready for any reasonable 
sacrifice or compromise to maintain it. But when 
the question comes of war in the cotton-fields of the 
South, or the corn-fields of Illinois, I say the farther 
off the better. 

We can not close our eyes to the sad and solemn 
fact that war does exist. The Government must be 
maintained, its enemies overthrown, and the more 
stupendous our preparations the less the bloodshed, 
and the shorter the struggle. But we must remember 
certain restraints on our action even in time of war. 
We are a Christian people, and the war must be 
prosecuted in a manner recognized by Christian 
nations. 

We must not invade Constitutional rights. The 
innocent must not suffer, nor women and children be 
the victims. Savages must not be let loose. But 



184 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

while I sanction no war on the rights of others, I will 
implore mj countrymen not to lay down their arms 
until our own rights are recognized. (Cheers.) 

The Constitution and its guarantees are our birth- 
right, and I am ready to enforce that inalienable 
right to the last extent. We can not recognize seces- 
sion. Recognize it once, and you have not only 
dissolved government, but you have destroyed social 
order — upturned the foundations of society. You 
have inaugurated anarchy in its worst form, and will 
shortly experience all the horrors of the French 
Revolution. 

Then we have a solemn duty — to maintain the 
Government. The greater our unanimity, the 
speedier the day of peace. We have prejudices to 
overcome from the few short months since of a fierce 
party contest. Yet these must be allayed. Let us 
lay aside all criminations and recriminations as to 
the origin of these difiiculties. When we shall have 
again a country with the United States flag floating 
over it, and respected on every inch of American 
soil, it will then be time enough to ask who and 
what brought all this upon us. 

I have said more than I intended to say. (Cries 
of " Go on.") It is a sad task to discuss questions so 
fearful as civil war ; but sad as it is, bloody and dis- 
astrous as I expect it will be, I express it as mj 



SPEECH OF HON". STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 185 

conviction before God, that it is the duty of every 
American citizen to rally round the flag of his 
country. 

I thank you again for this magnificent demonstra- 
tion. By it yon show you have laid aside party 
strife. Illinois has a proud position — United, firm, 
determined never to permit the Government to be 
destroyed. (Prolonged cheering.) 



186 KET-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBEETT. 



PEESIDENT LINCOLN'S FIEST CALL FOE 
TROOPS. 

APRIL 15th, 1861. 

Whereas^ the laws of the United States have been 
for some time past, and now are, opposed, and the 
execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South 
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful 
to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial 
proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals 
by law ; now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, Presi- 
dent of the United States, in virtue of the power in 
me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have 
thought fit to call forth the Militia of the several 
States of the Union to the aggregate number of 
7'5,000, in order to suppress said combinations, and 
to cause the laws to be duly executed. 

The details for this object will be immediately 
communicated to the State authorities through the 



187 



"War Department. I appeal to all loyal citizens to 
favor, facilitate, and aid, this effort to maintain the 
honor, the integrity, and existence, of our national 
Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, 
and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. 
I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned 
to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to 
repossess the forts, places, and property which have 
been seized from the Union ; and in every event the 
utmost care will be observed, consistently with the 
objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any 
destruction of, or interference with property, or any 
disturbance of peaceful citizens of any part of the 
country ; and I hereby command the persons compos- 
ing the combinations aforesaid, to disperse and retire 
peaceably to their respective abodes, within twenty 
days from this date. 

Deeming that the present condition of public 
affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, 
in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitu- 
tion, convene both houses of Congress. The Sena- 
tors and Representatives are, therefore, summoned to 
assemble at their respective chambers at twelve 
o'clock, noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July 
next, then and there to consider and determine such 
measures as, in their wisdom, the public safety and 
interest may seem to demand. 



188 KEY-N0TE9 OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, 
and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
Done at the City of Washington, this fifteenth ,day 
of April, in the year of our Lord, one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the independ- 
ence of the United States the eighty-fifth. 

Abraham Lincoln. 
J3y the President. 
William H. Seward, Secretary of State, 



TOTAL NUMBER OF TROOPS CALLED INTO SERVICE 
DURING THE REBELLION. 

The various calls of the President for men were 
as follows : 



1861, — 3 months' men, 
1861, — 3 years' men, . 
1862, — 3 years' men, . 
1862, — 9 months' men, 
1864, — 3 years' men, February, 
1864, — 3 years' men, March, 
1864, — 3 years' men, July, 



75,000 
500,000 
300,000 
300,000 
500,000 
200,000 
500,000 



1864,-3 years' men, December, . . 300,000 



Total, . . . 2,675,000 

These do not include the militia that were 
brought into service during the various invasions of 
Lee's armies into Maryland and Pennsylvania. 



N. T. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RESOLUTIONS. 189 



RESOLUTIONS OF THE N. Y. CHAMBER OF 
COMMERCE. 

SUSTAIISING THE FEDERAL GOVEBNATKNT AND UEGING A STRICT 
BLOCKADE OF SOUTHERN PORTS, APRIL 19tH, 1861. 

Whereas^ Oiir country has, in the course of 
events, reached a crisis unprecedented in its past 
history, exposing it to extreme dangers, and involv- 
ing the most momentous results ; and Whereas^ The 
President of the United States has, by his Proclama- 
tion, made known the dangers which threaten the 
stability of Government, and called upon the people 
to rally in support of the Constitution and laws ; and 
Whereas^ The merchants of New York, represented 
in this Chamber, have a deep stake in the results 
which may flow from the present exposed state of 
national affairs, as well as a jealous regard for the 
honor of that flag under whose protection they have 
extended the commerce of this city to the remotest 
part of the world ; therefore, 



190 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

Hesolved^ That this Chamber, alive to the perils 
which have been gathering around our cherished 
form of Government and menacing its overthrow, 
has witnessed with lively satisfaction the determina- 
tion of the President to maintain the Constitution 
and vindicate the supremacy of Government and 
law at every hazard. (Cheers.) 

Resolved^ That the so-called secession of some of 
the Southern States having at last culminated in 
open war against the United States, the American 
people can no longer defer their decision between 
anarchy or despotism on the one side, and on the 
other liberty, order, and law under the most benign 
Government the world has ever known. 

Resolved^ That this Chamber, forgetful of past 
differences of political opinion among its members, 
will, with unanimity and patriotic ardor, support the 
Government in this great crisis : and it hereby 
pledges its best efforts to sustain its credit and facili- 
tate its financial operations. It also confidently 
appeals to all men of wealth to join in these efibrts. 
(Applause.) 

Resolved^ That while deploring the advent of 
civil war which has been precipitated on the country 
by the madness of the South, the Chamber is per- 
suaded that policy and humanity alike demand that 
it should be met by the most prompt and energetic 



N. Y. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RESOLUTIONS. 191 

measures ; and it accordingly recommends to Gov- 
ernment the instant adoption and prosecution of a 
policy so vigorous and resistless, that it will crush 
out treason now and forever. (Applause.) 

Resolved^ That the proposition of Mr. Jefferson 
Davis to issue letters of marque to whosoever may 
apply for them, emanating from no recognized Gov- 
ernment, is not only without the sanction of public 
law, but piratical in its tendencies, and therefore 
deserving the stern condemnation of the civilized 
world. It cannot result in the fitting out of regular 
privateers, but may, in infesting the ocean with 
piratical cruisers, armed witb traitorous commissions, 
to despoil our commerce and that of all other 
maritime nations. (Applause.) 

Resolved, That in view of this threatening evil, it 
is, in the opinion of this Chamber, the duty of oiir 
Government to issue at once a proclamation, warning 
all persons, that privateering under the commissions 
proposed will be dealt with as simple piracy. It 
owes this duty not merely to itself, but to other 
maritime nations, wlio have a right to demand that 
the United States Government shall promptly discoun- 
tenance every attempt within its borders to legalize 
piracy. It should, also, at the earliest moment, block- 
ade every Southern port, so as to prevent the egress 
and ingress of such vessels. (Immense applause.) 



192 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

Besolmd^ That the Secretary be directed to send 
copies of these resolutions to the Chambers of Com- 
merce of other cities, inviting their co-operation in 
such measures as may be deemed effective in 
strengthening the hands of Government in this 
emergency. 

Resolved^ That a copy of these resolutions, duly 
attested by the officers of the Chamber, be forwarded 
to the President of the United States. 

BLOCKADE EESOLUTIONS. 

Whereas^ "War against the Constitution and Gov- 
ernment of these United States has been commenced, 
and is carried on by certain combinations of indi- 
viduals, assuming to act for States at the South 
claiming to have seceded from the United States ; 
and 

'Whereas^ Such combinations have officially pro- 
mulgated an invitation for the enrollment of vessels, 
to act under their authorization, and as so-called 
" privateers," against the flag and commerce of the 
United States ; therefore, 

Resolved^ by the Chamber of Commerce of the 
State of !N^ew York, That the United States Govern- 
ment be recommended and urged to blockade the 
ports of such States, or any other State that shall 



N. T. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RESOLUTIONS. 193 

join them, and that this measure is demanded for 
defence in war, as also for protection to the commerce 
of the United States against these so-called " priva- 
teers " invited to enrol under the authority of such 
States. 

Resolved^ That the Chamber of Commerce of 
the State of !N"ew York pledges its hearty and cor- 
dial support to such measures as the Government of 
the United States may, in its wisdom, inaugurate 
and carry through in the blockade of such ports. 



104: KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 



A PEOOLAMATION, 

BY THE PEESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMEEIOA, 
BLOCKADING THE BOUTHEEN POETS. 

Whereas an insurrection against the Government 
of the United States has broken out in the States of 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Missis- 
sippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the 
United States for the collection of the revenue can 
not be efficiently executed therein conformably to 
that provision of the Constitution which requires 
duties to be uniform throughout the United States : 

And Whereas a combination of persons, engaged 
in such insurrection, have threatened to grant pre- 
tended letters of marque to authorize the bearers 
thereof to commit assaults on the lives, vessels, and 
property of good citizens of the country lawfully 
eno-ao^ed in commerce on the hio-h seas, and in waters 
of the United States : 

And Whereas an Executive Proclamation has 



BLOCKADE rROCLAMATION. 195 

been already issued, requiring the persons engaged 
in these disorderly proceedings to desist therefrom, 
calling out a militia force for the purpose of repress- 
ing the same, and convening Congress in extraordi- 
nary session to deliberate ajjd determine thereon : 

[N^ow, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
of the United States, with a view to the same pur- 
poses before mentioned, and to the protection of the 
public peace, and the lives and property of quiet 
and orderly citizens pursuing their lawful occupa- 
tions, until Congress shall have assembled and 
deliberated on the said unlawful proceedings, or 
until the same shall have ceased, have further 
deemed advisable to set on foot a Blockade of the 
ports within the States aforesaid, in pursuance of the 
laws of the United States and of the laws of nations 
in such cases provided. For this purpose a compe- 
tent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance 
and exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid. If, 
therefore, with a view to violate such Blockade, a 
vessel shall approach, or shall attempt to leave any 
of the said ports, she will be duly warned by the 
Commander of one of the blockading vessels, who 
will endorse on her register the fact and date of such 
warning ; and if the same vessel shall again attempt 
to enter or leave the blockaded port, she will be cap- 
tured and sent to the nearest convenient port, for 



196 KET-K0TE8 OF AMERICAN LIBEKTT. 

such proceedings against her and her cargo as prize 
as may be deemed advisable. 

And I hereby proclaim and declare, that if any 
person, under the pretended authority of said States, 
or under any other pretence, shall molest a vessel of 
the United States, or the persons or cargo on board 
of her, such person vrill be held amenable to the 
laws of the United States for the prevention and 
punishment of piracy. 

Abkaham Lincoln. 
By the President. 

"William H. Seward, Secretary of State, 

■Washington, April 19, 1861. 



THE BMAHCIPATIOlf PROCLAMATION. 197 



THE EMANCIPATION PKOOLAMATION. 

BY THE PEESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OP AMEEIOA. 

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of Septem- 
ber, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and sixty-two, a Proclamation was issued "by 
the President of the United States, containing among 
other things the following, to wit : 

" That on the first day of January, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or 
designated part of a State, the people whereof shall 
then be in rebellion against the United States, shall 
be then, thenceforth and forevek free, and the 
Executive Government of the United States, includ- 
ing the military and naval authorities thereof, will 
recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, 
and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or 
any of them, in any efforts they may make for their 
actual freedom. 

"That the Executive will, on the first day of 



198 KEY-NOTES OF AMEKICAN LIBEETY. 

Jaiuiarj aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the 
States and parts of States, if any, in which the people 
thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against 
the United States, and the fact that any State, or 
the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith 
represented in the Congress of the United States by 
members chosen thereto at elections wherein a ma- 
jority of the qualified voters of such State shall have 
participated, shall, in the absence of strong counter- 
vailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence 
that such State and the people thereof are not then 
in rebellion against the United States." 

ISTow, therefore, I, ABEAHAM LmCOLl^, 
President of the United States, by virtue of the 
power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army and 'Navj of the United States in time of 
actual armed rebellion against the authority and 
government of the United States, and as a fit and 
necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, 
do, on this first day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 
and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly 
proclaim for the full period of one hundred days 
from the day of the first above mentioned order, and 
designate, as the States and parts of States wherein 
the people thereof respectively are this day in rebel- 
lion against the United States, the following, to wit : 



THE EMANCIPATION PKOCLAMATIOX. 199 

AEKA]V[SAS, TEXAS, LOUISIAl^A, (except the 
Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. 
John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, 
Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and 
Orleans, including the Citj of Orleans), MISSIS- 
SIPPI, ALABAMA, FLOKIDA, GEORGIA, 
SOUTH CAEOLm A, NORTE CAROLINA, and 
YIRGINIA (except the forty-eight counties desig- 
nated as West Virginia, and also the counties of 
Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, 
York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the 
cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which ex- 
cepted parts are, for the present, left precisely as if 
this Proclamation were not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose 
aforesaid, I do order and declare that all peesons 
HELD AS SLAVES withiu Said designated States and 
parts of States aee, and henceforward SHALL BE 
FREE ! and that the Executive Government of the 
United States, including the military and naval au- 
thorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the 
freedom of said persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared 
to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in 
necessary self-defence, and I recommend to them 
that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully 
for reasonable wages. 



2(X) KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

And I further declare and make known that such 
persons of suitable condition will be received into 
the armed service of the United States to garrison 
forts, positions, stations and other places, and to man 
vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an 
act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon 
military necessity, I invoke the considerate judg- 
ment of mankind and the gracious favor of Al- 
mighty God. 

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my 
name, and caused the seal of the United States to be 
affixed. 

Done at the City of Washington, this first day 

of January, in the year of our Lord one 

[l. s.] thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 

and of the Independence of the United 

States the eighty-seventh. 

ABEAHAM LmCOU^. 

By the President. 

William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 



THE COKTISCATION ACT. 201 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 

TO CONFISCATE PEOPEETT USED FOE INSUEEEOTIONAET PXJEP0SE8. 

Be it enacted^ etc.^ That if, during the present or 
any future insurrection against the Government of 
the United States, after the President of the United 
States shall have declared, by proclaniation, that the 
laws of the United States are opposed, and the exe- 
cution thereof obstructed, by combinations too pow- 
erful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of 
judicial proceedings, or by the power vested in the 
marshals by law, any person or persons, his, her, or 
their agent, attorney, or employee, shall purchase or 
acquire, sell or give any property of whatsoever kind 
or description, with intent to use or employ the 
same, or suffer the same to be used or employed, in 
aiding, abetting, or promoting such insurrection or 
resistance to the laws, or any person or persons en- 
gaged therein ; or if any person or persons, being the 



202 KEY-NOTES OP AMEEICAN LIBEETY. 

owner or owners of any sucli property, shall know- 
ingly nse or employ, or consent to the nse or employ- 
ment of the same as aforesaid, all such property is 
hereby declared to be lawful sulgect of prize and 
capture wherever found ; and it shall be the duty of 
the President of the United States to cause the same 
to be seized, confiscated, and condemned. 

Sec. 2. Such prizes and capture shall be con- 
demned in the district or cii'cuit court of the United 
States, having jurisdiction of the amount, or in admi- 
ralty in any district in which the same may be seized, 
or into which they may be taken and proceedings 
first instituted. 

Sec. 3. The Attorney-General, or any district 
attorney of the United States in which said property 
may at the time be, may institute the proceedings of 
condemnation, and in such case they shall be wholly 
for the benefit of the United States ; or any person 
may file an information with such attorney, in which 
case the proceedings shall be for the use of such in- 
former and the United States in equal parts. 

Sec. 4. Whenever hereafter, during the present 
insurrection against the Government of the United 
States, any person claimed to be held to labor or ser- 
vice under the law of any State, shall be required or 
permitted by the person to whom such labor or ser- 
vice is claimed to be due, or by the lawful agent of 



THE CONFISCATION ACT. 203 

such persons, to take up arms against the United 
States, or sliall be required or permitted by the per- 
son to whom such labor or service is claimed to be 
due, or his lawful agent, to work or to be employed 
in or upon any fort, navy yard, dock, armory, ship, 
intrenchment, or in any military or naval service 
whatsoever, against the Government and lawful au- 
thority of the United States, then, and in every such 
case, the person to whom such labor or service is 
claimed to be due, shall forfeit his claim to such labor, 
any law of the State or of the United States to the 
contrary notwithstanding. And whenever thereafter 
the person claiming such labor or service shall seek 
to enforce his claim, it shall be a full and sufficient 
answer to such claim that the person whose service 
or labor is claimed had been employed in the hostile 
service against the Government of the United States, 
contrary to the provisions of this act. 



204: KEY-NOTES OF Al^IERICAN LIBEETT. 



FIKST INAUGUEAL ADDEESS OF PEESIDENT 
LINCOLN 



Fellow- Citizens of the United States : 

In compliance with a custom as old as the Gov- 
ernment itself, I appear before you to address jou 
briefly, and to take, in your presence, the oath pre- 
scribed by the Constitution of the United States to 
be taken by the President, before he enters on the 
execution of his ofiice. 

I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me 
to discuss those matters of administration about 
which there is no special anxiety or excitement. 
Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the 
Southern States, that, by the accession of a Repub- 
lican Administration, their property and their peace 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 205 

and personal security are to be endangered. There 
has never been any reasonable cause for such appre- 
hension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the 
contrary has all the while existed, and been open to 
tlieu' inspection. It is found in nearly all the pub- 
lished speeches of him who now addresses you. I 
do but quote from one of those speeches, when I 
declare that " I have no purpose, directly or indi- 
rectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in 
the States where it exists." I believe I have no 
lawful right to do so ; and I have no inclination to 
do so. Those who nominated and elected me, did so 
with the full knowledge that I had made this, and 
made many similar declarations, and had never re- 
canted them. And, more than this, they placed in 
the platform, for my acceptance, and as a law to 
themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolu- 
tion which I now read : 

'-^ Resolved^ That the maintenance inviolate of the 
rights of the States, and especially the right of each 
State to order and control its own domestic institu- 
tions according to its own judgment exclusively, is 
essential to that balance of power on which the per- 
I'ection and endurance of our political fabric depend ; 
and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force 
of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under 
what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes." 



206 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBEETY. 

1 now reiterate these sentiments ; and in doing so 
I only press upon the public attention the most con- 
dusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that 
the property, peace, and security of no section are 
to be in anywise endangered by the now incoming 
Administration. 

I add, too, that all the protection which, consist- 
ently with the Constitution and the laws, can be 
given will be cheerfully given to all the States when 
lawfully demanded, for whatever cause, as cheerfully 
to one section as to another. 

There is much controvery about the delivering 
up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I 
now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as 
any other of its provisions : 

" No person held to service or labor in one State 
under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such 
service or labor may be due." 

It is scarcely questioned that this provision was 
intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of 
what we call fugitive slaves ; and the intention of 
the lawgiver is the law. 

All members of Congress swear their support to 
the whole Constitution — to this provision as well as 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 207 

any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves 
whose cases come within the terms of this clause 
" shall be delivered up," their oaths are unanimous. 
JSTow, if they would make the effort in good temper, 
could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame 
and pass a law by means of which to keep good that 
unanimous oath ? 

There is some difference of opinion whether this 
clause should be enforced by National or by State 
authority ; but surely that difference is not a very 
material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it 
can be of but little consequence to him or to others 
by which authority it is done ; and should any one, 
in any case, be content that this oath shall go unkept 
on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it 
shall be kept ? 

Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not 
all the safeguards of liberty known in the civilized 
and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that 
a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a 
slave ? And might it not be well at the same time 
to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause 
in the Constitution which guaranties that " the citi- 
zens of each State shall be entitled to all the 
privileges and immunities of citizens of the several 
States?" 

I take the official oath to-day with no mental 



208 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

reservations, and with no purpose to construe the 
Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules ; and 
while I do not choose now to specify particular acts 
of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest 
that it will be much safer for all, both in official and 
private stations, to conform to and abide by all those 
acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of 
them, trusting to find impunity in having them held 
to be unconstitutional. 

It is seventy-two years since the first inaugura- 
tion of a President under our national Constitution. 
During that period fifteen difierent and very distin- 
guished citizens have in succession administered the 
executive branch of the government. They have 
conducted it through many perils, and generally 
with great success. Yet, with all this scope for pre- 
cedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief 
constitutional term of four years, under great and 
peculiar difficulties. 

A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore 
only menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold 
that in the contemplation of universal law and of 
the Constitution, the Union of these States is per- 
petual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in 
the fundamental law of all national governments. 
It is safe to assert that no government proper ever 
had a provision in its organic law for its own termin- 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 209 

ation. Continue to execute all the express provisions 
of our national Constitution, and the Union will 
endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it, 
except by some action not provided for in the instru- 
ment itself. 

Again, if the United States be not a government 
proper, but an association of States in the nature of 
a contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably 
unmade by less than all the parties who made it? 
One party to a contract may violate it — break it, so 
to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully 
rescind it ? Descending from these general principles 
we find the proposition that in legal contemplation 
the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of 
the Union itself. 

The Union is much older than the Constitution. 
It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association 
in 1774. It was matured and continued in the Dec- 
laration of Independence in 1776. It was further 
matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States 
expressly plighted and engaged that it should be 
perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation, in 1778 ; 
and, finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for 
ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to 
form a more perfect Union. But if the destruction 
of the Union by one or by a part only of the States 
be lawfully possible, the Union is less than before, 



210 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

the Constitution having lost the vital element of 
perpetuity. 

It follows from these views that no State, upon 
its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the 
Union ; that resolves and ordinances to that effect, 
are legally void ; and that acts of violence within any 
State or States against the authority of the United 
States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary, accord- 
ing to circumstances. 

I therefore consider that, in view of the Consti- 
tution and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to 
the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the 
Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that 
the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in 
all the States. Doing this, which I deem to be only 
a simple duty on my part, I shall perfectly perform 
it, so far as is practicable, unless my rightful masters, 
the American people, shall withhold the requisition, 
or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. 

I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but 
only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will 
constitutionally defend and maintain itself. 

In doing this there need be no bloodshed or vio- 
lence, and there shall be none unless it is forced upon 
the national authority. 

The power confided to me ivill he used to Jiold^ 
ocGiify, andjpossess the j^operty andjplaces lelonging 



rN"ArGUEAL ADDRESS OF PEESIDENT LINCOLN". 211 

to the Government^ and collect the duties and im- 
posts ; but beyond what may be necessary for these 
objects there will be no invasion, no using of force 
against or among the people anywhere. 

Where hostility to the United States shall be so 
great and so universal as to prevent competent resi- 
dent citizens from holding the Federal offices, there 
will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers 
among the people that object. While the strict 
legal right may exist of the Government to enforce 
the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so 
would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable 
withal, that I deem it better to forego for the time 
the nses of such offices. 

The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be 
furnished in all parts of the Union. 

So far as possible, the people everywhere shall 
have that sense of perfect security which is most 
favorable to calm thouo-ht and reflection. 

The course here indicated will be followed, unless 
current events and experience shall show a modifica- 
tion or change to be proper ; and in every case and 
exigency my best discretion will be exercised accord- 
ing to the circumstances actually existing, and with 
a view and hope of a peaceful solution of the national 
troubles, and the restoration of fraternal sympathies 
and affections. 



212 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

That there are persons, in one section or another, 
who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are 
glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor 
deny. But if there be such, I need address no word 
to them. 

To those, however, who really love the Union, 
may I not speak, before entering upon so grave a 
matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with 
all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes ? Would 
it not be well to ascertain why we do it ? Will yon 
hazard so desperate a step, while any portion of the 
ills you fly from, have no real existence ? Will you, 
while the certain ills you fly to, are greater than all 
the real ones you fly from ? Will you risk the com- 
mission of so fearful a mistake ? All profess to be 
content in the Union if all constitutional rights 
can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, 
plainly written in the Constitution has been denied ? 
I think not. Happily the human mind is so consti- 
tuted, that no party can reach to the audacity of 
doing this. 

Think, if you can, of a single instance in which 
a plainly- written provision of the Constitution has 
ever been denied. If, by the mere force of nnmbers, 
a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly- 
written constitutional right, it might, in a moral 
point of view, justify revolution ; it certainly would, 



rN"AUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESmENT LINCOLN. 213 

if such riglit were a vital one. But such is not our 
case. 

All the vital rights of minorities and of individu- 
als are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and 
negations, guaranties and prohibitions in the Consti- 
tution, that controversies never arise concerning 
them. But no organic law can ever be framed with 
a provision specifically applicable to every question 
which may occur in practical administration. ISTo 
foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reason- 
able length contain, express provisions for all possible 
questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered 
by national or by State authorities? The Constitu- 
tion does not expressly say. Must Congress protect 
slavery in the Territories ? The Constitution does 
not expressly say. From questions of this class, 
spring all our constitutional controversies, and we 
divide upon them into majorities and minorities. 

If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority 
must, or the government must cease. There is no 
alternative for continuing the government but acqui- 
escence on the one side or the other. If a minority 
in such a case, will secede rather than acquiesce, 
they make a precedent which in turn will ruin and 
divide them, for a minority of their own will secede 
from them whenever a majority refuses to be con- 
trolled by such a minority. For instance, why not 



214: KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LEBERTT. 

anj portion of a new confederacy, a year or two 
hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions 
of the present Union now claim to secede from it ? 
x4l11 who cherish disunion sentiments are now being 
educated to^ the exact temper of doing this. Is there 
such perfect identity of interests among the States to 
compose a new Union as to produce harmony only, 
and prevent renewed secession ? Plainly, the central 
idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. 

A majority held in restraint by constitutional 
check and limitation, and always changing easily 
•with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sen- 
timents, is the only true sovereign of a free people. 
Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy 
or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible ; and the 
rule of a majority, as a permanent arrangement, is 
-wholly inadmissible. So that, rejecting the majority 
principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all 
that is left. 

I do not forget the position assumed by some 
that constitutional questions are to be decided by 
the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decis- 
ions must be binding in any case upon the parties to 
a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are 
also entitled to very high respect and consideration 
in all parallel cases by all other departments of the 
government ; and while it is obviously possible that 



INATJGUEAli ADDEESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 215 

such decision may be erroneous in any given case, 
still the evil effect following it, being limited to that 
particular case, with the chance that it may be over- 
ruled and never become a precedent for other cases, 
can better be borne than could the evils of a different 
practice. 

At the same time the candid citizen must confess 
that if the policy of the government upon the vital 
questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevo- 
cably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, 
the instant they are made, as in ordinary litigation 
between parties in personal actions, the people will 
have ceased to be their own masters, unless having 
to that extent practically resigned their government 
into the hands of that eminent tribunal. 

Nor is there in this view any assault upon the 
court or the judges. . It is a duty from which they 
may not shrink, to decide cases properly brought 
before them ; and it is no fault of theirs if others seek 
to turn their decisions into political purposes. One 
section of our country believes slavery is right and 
ought to be extended, while the other believes it is 
wrong and ought not to be extended ; and this is tho 
only substantial dispute ; and the fugitive slave 
clause of the Constitution, and the law for the sup- 
pression of the foreign slave trade, are each as well 
enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a com- 



216 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

munitj where the moral sense of the people imper- 
fectly supports the law itself. The great body of the 
people abide by the dry legal obligation in both 
cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, 
cannot be perfectly cured, and it would be worse in 
both cases after the separation of the sections than 
before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly 
suppressed, would be ultimately revived, witliout 
restriction, in one section ; while fugitive slaves, now 
only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered 
at all by the other. 

Physically speaking we cannot separate— we can- 
not remove our respective sections from each other, 
nor build an impassable wall between them. A 
husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of 
the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but 
the different sections of our country cannot do this. 
They cannot but remain face to face; and inter- 
course, either amicable or hostile, must continue 
between them. Is it possible, then, to make that 
intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory 
after separation than before? Can aliens make 
treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can 
treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens 
than laws can among friends ? Suppose you go to 
war, you cannot fight always ; and when, after much 
loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease 



INArGUBAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 217 

fighting, the identical questions as to terms of inter- 
course are again upon you. 

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the 
people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow 
weary of the existing government, they can exercise 
their constitutional right of amejjding, or their revolu- 
tionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I can- 
not be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and 
patriotic citizens are desirous of having the national 
Constitution amended. While I make no recom- 
mendation of amendment, I fully recognize the full 
authority of the people over the whole subject, to be 
exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the 
instrument itself, and I should, under existing cir- 
cumstances, favor, rather than oppose, a fair oppor- 
tunity being afibrded the people to act upon it. 

I will venture to add, that to me the convention 
mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments 
to originate with the people themselves, instead of 
only permitting them to take or reject propositions 
originated by others not especially chosen for the 
purpose, and which might not be precisely such as 
they would wish either to accept or refuse. I under- 
stand that a proposed amendment to the Constitution 
(which amendment, however, I have not seen) has 
passed Congress, to the efiect that the Federal Gov- 
ernment shall never interfere with the domestic 
10 



218 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETT. 

institutions of States, including that of persons held 
to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I 
have said, I depart from mj purpose not to speak of 
particular amendments, so far as to say that, holding 
such a provision to now be implied constitutional 
law, I have no objection to its being made express 
and irrevocable. 

The chief magistrate derives all his authority 
from the people, and they have conferred none upon 
him to 'Six the terms for the separation of the States. 
The people themselves, also, can do this if they 
choose, but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do 
with it. His duty is to administer the present gov- 
ernment as it came to his hands, and to transmit it 
unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should 
there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate 
justice of the people ? Is there any better or equal 
hope in the world? In our present difierences is 
either party without faith of being in the right ? If 
the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal 
truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on 
yours of the South, that truth and that justice will 
surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, 
the American people. By the frame of the Govern- 
ment under which we live, this same people have 
wisely given their public servants but little power 
for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 219 

for the return of that little to their own hands at 
very short intervals. While the people retain their 
virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any ex- 
treme wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure 
the Government in the short space of four years. 

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and 
well upon this whole subject. E'othing valuable can 
be lost by taking time. 

If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot 
haste, to a step which you would never take deliber- 
ately, that object will be frustrated by taking time ; 
but no good object can be frustrated by it. 

Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the 
old Constitution unimpaired, and un the sensitive 
point, the laws of your own framing under it; while 
the new administration will have no immediate 
power, if it would, to change either. 

If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied 
hold the right side in the dispute, there is still no 
single reason for precipitate actijn. Intelligence, 
patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance un Him 
who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are 
still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our 
present difiiculties. 

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
The government will not assail you. 



220 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAN LIBERTY. 

You can have no conflict without being your- 
selves the aggressors. You have no oath registered 
in Heaven to destroy the government ; while I shall 
have the most solemn one to " preserve, protect, and 
defend it." 

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but 
friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion 
may have strained, it must not break our bonds of 
affection. 

The mystic cords of memory, stretching from 
every battle-field and patriot grave to every living 
heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, \vill 
yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again 
touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels 
of our nature. 



THE BALANCE SHEET OF THE GOVERNMENT. 221 



THE BALANCE SHEET OF THE GOVERNMENT, 

BEFOEE AND SINCE THE WAE, 1859 AND 1865. 



The receipts into the Treasury during the fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1859, were as follows : 

From Customs $49,565,824 38 

From Public Lands 1,756,687 30 

From Miscellaneous Sources 2,082,559 33 

From Treasury Notes 9,667,400 00 

From Loans 18,620,000 00 



Aggregate resources for the year ending 

June 30, 1859 $88,090,787 11 

Which amount was expended as follows : 

Civil, Foreign and Miscellan's. .$23,635,820 94 

Interior (Indians and Pensions), 4,753,972 60 

War Department 23,243,822 38 

Nav> Department 14,712,610 21 

Public Debt 17,405,285 44 



Total expenses for the year. $83,751,511 57 

Balance in Treasury July 1, 1859 4,339,275 54 

The receipts into the Treasury during the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1865, was $1,898,532,533 24, of which were 
received : 

From loans applied to expenses $864,863,499 17 

From loans applied to Public Debt 607,361,241 68 

From Internal Revenue 209,464,215 25 

Expenditures for the year $1,897,674,224 09 

War Department charged with 1,031,323,360 79 

Balance in Treasury July 1, 1805 858,309 15 

Total increase of Public Debt during the 

year 941,902,537 04 



222 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAIT LIBEETT. 



PEESIDEJJT LINCOLN'S SECOND AND LAST 
INAUaURAL ADDEESS. 

Maboh 4, 1865. 

FELLow-Couin'ETMEN I At this secoTid appearing 
to take tlie oath of the Presidential office, there is 
less occasion for an extended address than there was 
at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, 
of a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and 
proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during 
which public declarations have been constantly 
called forth on every point and phase of the great 
contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses 
the energies of the nation, little that is new could be 
presented. 

The progress of our arms, upon which all else 
chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to 
myself, and it is, I trust reasonably satisfactory and 
encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, 
no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 



On the occasion corresponding to this four years 
ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an im- 
pending civil war. All dreaded it ; all sought to 
avoid it. While the inaugural address was being 
delivered from this place, devoted altogether to sav- 
ing the Union without war, insurgent agents were in 
the city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking 
to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by nego- 
tiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of 
them would make war rather than let the nation 
survive ; and the other would rather accept war than 
let it perish, and the war came. 

One-eighth of the whole population were colored 
slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but 
localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves 
constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All 
knew that this interest was somehow the cause of 
the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend 
this interest, was the object for which the insurgents 
would rend the Union even by war, while the Gov- 
ernment claimed no right to do more than to restrict 
the territorial enlargement of it. 

ITeither party expected for the war the magni- 
tude or the duration which it has already attained. 
Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict 
miccht cease with, or even before the conflict itself 
should cease. Each looked for an easier tri- 



224 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTr. 

umph, and a result less fundamental and astound- 
ing. 

Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same 
God ; and each invoke his aid against the other. It 
ma J seem strange that any men should dare to ask a 
just God's assistance in wringing their bread from 
the sweat of other men's faces ; but let us judge not, 
that we be not judged. The prayers of both could 
not be answered. That of neither has been an- 
swered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. 
" Woe unto the world because of offences, for it must 
must needs be that offences come ; but woe to that 
man by whom the offence cometh." If we shall 
suppose that American slavery is one of these offen- 
ces, which, in the providence of God, must needs 
come, but which, having continued through his 
appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he 
gives to both North and South this terrible war as 
the woe due to those by whom the offence came, 
shall we discern therein any departure from those 
divine attributes which the believers in a living God 
always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope, fer- 
vently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war 
may soon pass away. Yet, if God wills that it con- 
tinue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's 
two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall 
be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with 



Lincoln's last inaugural address. 225 

the lash, shall be paid with another drawn by the 
sword ; as was said three thousand years ago, so still 
it must be said, " The judgments of the Lord are 
true and righteous altogether." 

With malice toward none, with charity to all, 
with firnmess in the right, as God gives us to see the 
right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in ; 
to bind up the nation's wounds ; to care for him who 
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and 
his orphans ; to do all which may achieve and cher- 
ish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and 
with all nations. 



226 KET-NOTES OF AMEETCAH LIBEETT. 



PEESIDENT LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION OF 
AMNESTY. 

AOOOMPANTING THE PEESIDENT^S MESSAGE, DECEMBER 8, 1863. 

"Whereas, in and bj the Constitution of the 
United States, it is provided that the President 
" shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons 
for offences against the United States, except in 
cases of impeachment ;" and whereas a rebellion now 
exists whereby the loyal State governments of several 
States have for a long time been subverted, and 
many persons have committed and are now guilty of 
treason against the United States ; and whereas, 
with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws 
have been enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures 
and confiscation of property and liberation of slaves, 
all upon terms and conditions therein stated ; and 
also declaring that the President was thereby author- 
ized at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to 
extend to persons who may have participated in the 



existing rebellion, in any State or part thereof, par- 
don and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such 
times and on such conditions as he may deem expe- 
dient for the public welfare ; and whereas the con- 
gressional declaration for limited and conditional 
pardon accords with well established judicial exposi- 
tion of the pardoning power ; and whereas, with 
reference to said rebellion, the President of the 
United States has issued several proclamations with 
provisions in regard to the liberation of slaves ; and 
whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore 
engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance 
to the United States, and to reinaugurate loyal State 
governments within and for their respective States : 
Therefore, 

" I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to all 
persons who have, directly or by implication, partici- 
pated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter 
excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to 
them and each of them, with restoration of all rights 
of property, except as to slaves, and in property 
cases where rights of third parties shall have inter- 
vened, and upon the condition that every such 
person shall take and subscribe an oath, and thence- 
forward keep and maintain such oath inviolate ; and 
which oath shall be registered for permanent preser^ 



228 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LTBEETT. 

vation, and shall be of the tenor and effect following, 
to wit : 

" I, , do solemnly swear, in presence 

of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully 
support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the 
United States, and the union of the States there- 
under ; and that I will in like manner, abide by and 
faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during 
the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so 
long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held 
void by Congress, or by decision of the Supreme 
Court ; and that I will, in like manner, abide by 
and faithfully support all proclamations of the Presi- 
dent made during the existing rebellion having 
reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified 
or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. 
So help me God." 

The persons excepted from the benefits of the 
foregoing provisions are, all who are, or shall have 
been, civil or diplomatic ofiicers or agents of the so- 
called confederate government ; all who have left 
judicial stations under the United States to aid the 
rebellion ; all who are, or shall have been, military 
or naval officers of said so-called confederate govern- 
ment, above the rank of colonel in the army, or of 
lieutenant in the navy ; all who left seats in the 
United States Congress to aid the rebellion ; all who 



resigned commissions in the Army or "Navj of the 
United States, ana afterwards aided the rebellion ; 
and all who have engaged in any way in treating 
jcolored persons, or white persons in charge of such, 
otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war, and 
which persons may have been found in the United 
States Service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other 
capacity. 

And I do further proclaim, declare and make 
known, that whenever, in any of the States of 
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, 
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and 
North Carolina, a number of persons, not less than 
one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such State 
at the presidential election of the year of our Lord 
1860, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and not 
having since violated it, and being a qualified voter 
by the election law of the State existing immediately 
before the so-called act of secession, and excluding 
all others shall re-establish a State government which 
shall be republican, and in nowise contravening said 
oath, such shall be recognized as the true govern- 
ment of the State, and the State shall receive there- 
under the benefits of the constitutional provision 
which declares that " the United States shall guar- 
anty to every State in this Union a republican form 
of government, and shall protect each of them 



230 KEY-NOTES OF AMEETCAN LIBERTT. 

against invasion ; and, on application of the Legisla- 
ture, or the Executive (when the Legislature cannot 
be convened), against domestic violence." 

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make 
known that any provision which may be adopted by 
such State government in relation to the freed 
people of such State, which shall recognize and 
declare their permanent freedom, provide for their 
education, and which may yet be consistent, as a 
temporary arrangement, with their present condition 
as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not 
be objected to by the National Executive. And it is 
suggested as not improper, that, in constructing a 
loyal State government in any State, the name of 
the State, the boundary, the subdivisions, the consti- 
tution, and the general code of laws, as before the 
rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifi- 
cations made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore 
stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said 
conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by 
those framing the new State government. 

To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to 
say that this proclamation, so far as it relates to 
State governments, has no reference to States 
wherein loyal State governments have all the while 
been maintained. And for the same reason, it may 
be proper to further say that whether members sent 



LINCOLN^S PEOCLMIATIOK OF AMNESTY. 231 

to Congress from any State shall be admitted to 

seats, constitutionally rests exclusive with the 

respective Houses, and not to any extent with the 

Executive. And still further, that this proclamation 

is intended to present the people of the States 

wherein the national authority has been suspended, 

and loyal State governments have been subverted, 

a mode in and by which the national authority and 

loyal State governments may be re-established within 

said States, or in any of them ; and, while the mode 

presented is the best the Executive can suggest, with 

his present impressions, it must not be understood 

that no other possible mode would be acceptable. 

Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, 

the 8th day of December, a. d. 1863, and of 

[l. s.] the independence of the United States of 

America the eighty-eighth. 

ABEAHAM LIISTCOLK 
By the President. 
"Wm. H. Sewaed, Secretary of State, 



232 KET-NOTES OP AMERICAN LIBEETT. 



PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S AMNESTY PEOCLA- 
MATION. 

BT THE PEESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

Whereas, The President of the United States, on 
the 8th day of December, 1863, did, with the object 
of suppressing the existing rebellion, to induce all 
persons to lay down their arms, to return to their 
loyalty, and to restore the authority of the United 
States, issue proclamations offering amnesty and par- 
don to certain persons who had directly or by impli- 
cation, engaged in said rebellion ; and 

Whereas, Many persons who had so engaged in 
the late rebellion have, since the issuance of said 
proclamation, failed or neglected to take the benefits 
offered thereby ; and 

Whereas, Many persons who have been justly 
deprived of all claim to amnesty and pardon there- 
under, by reason of their participation directly or by 
implication in said rebellion, and continued in hos 
tility to the Government of the United States since 



233 



the date of said proclamation, now desire to apply 
for and obtain amnesty and pardon : 

To the end, therefore, that the authority of the 
Government of the United States may be restored, 
and tha-t peace, and order, and freedom may be es- 
tablished, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the 
United States, do proclaim and declare, that I 
hereby grant to all persons who have directly or in- 
directly participated in the existing rebellion, except 
as hereafter excepted, amnesty and pardon, with res- 
toration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, 
except in cases where legal proceedings under the 
laws of the United States, providing for the confisca- 
tion of property of persons engaged in rebellion, have 
been instituted, but on the condition, nevertheless, 
that every such person shall take and subscribe to 
the following oath, which shall be registered, for 
permanent preservation, and shall be of the tenor 
and effect following, to wit : 

I do solemnly swear or affirm in presence of 
Almighty God, that I will henceforth support, pro- 
tect, and faithfully defend the Constitution of the 
United States, and will, in like manner, abide by 
and faithfully support all laws and proclamations 
which have been made during the existing rebellion 
with reference to the emancipation of slaves. So 
help me God. 



234: KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LTBERTT. 

The following classes of persons are excepted 
from the benefits of this proclamation. 

1. All who are or have been pretended diplomatic 
officers, or otherwise domestic or foreign agents of 
the pretended Confederate States. 

2. All who left judicial stations under the United 
States to aid in the rebellion. 

3. All who have been military or naval officers of 
the pretended Confederate Government above the rank 
of colonel in the army, and lieutenant in the navy. 

4. All who left their seats in the Congress of the 
United States to aid in the rebellion. 

5. All who resigned or tendered the resignation 
of their commissions in the army and navy of tlie 
United States to evade their duty in resisting the 
rebellion. 

6. All who have engaged in any way in treating 
otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war, persons 
found in the United States service as officers, sol- 
diers, seamen, or in other capacities. 

7. All persons who have been or are absentees 
from the United States for the purpose of aiding the 
rebellion. 

8. All military or naval officers in the rebel ser- 
vice who were educated by the Government in the 
Military Academy at West Point, or at the United 
States Naval Academy. 



Johnson's amnesty peoclamation. 235 

9. All persons who held the pretended offices of 
Governors of the States in insurrection against the 
United States. 

10. All persons who left their homes within the 
jurisdiction and protection of the United States, and 
passed beyond the Federal military lines into the 
so-called Confederate States for the purpose of aiding 
the rebellion. 

11. All persons who have engaged in the de- 
struction of the commerce of the United States upon 
the high seas, and all persons who have made raids 
into the United States from Canada, or been engaged 
in destroying the commerce of the United States on 
the lakes and rivers that separate the British prov- 
inces from the United States. 

12. All persons who, at a time when they seek to 
obtain the benefits hereof by taking the oath herein 
prescribed, are in military, naval or civil confinement 
or custody, or under bond of the military or naval 
authorities or agents of the United States as pris- 
oners of any kind, either before or after their con- 
viction. 

13. All persons who have voluntarily participated 
in said rebellion, the estimated value of whose taxa- 
ble property is over twenty thousand dollars. 

14. All persons who have taken the oath of am- 
nesty, as prescribed in the President's proclamation 



236 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

of December 8, 1863, or the oath of allegiance to the 
United States since the date of said proclamation, 
and who have not thenceforward kept the same 
inviolate ; provided, that special application may be 
made to the President for pardon by any person be- 
longing to the excepted classes, and such clemency 
will be extended as may be consistent with the facts 
of the case and the peace and dignity of the United 
States. The Secretary of State will establish rules 
and regulations for administering and recording the 
said amnesty oath, so as to insure its benefits to the 
people, and guard the government against fraud. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my 
hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be 
affixed. 

Done at the City of Washington, this the 29th 

day of May, 1865, and of the independence of 

America the 89th. 

A]S"DEEW JOHNSON. 
By the President, 

Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State. 



A PEACE PBOCLAMATION. 237 



A PEACE PEOOLAMATION. 



On the 20th of August, 1866, the President 
issued a proclamation announcing the return of 
peace and restoring the writ of habeas corpus in all 
the Southern States. Among the points made in 
this proclamation are the following: 

" There now exists no organized armed resistance 
of the misguided citizens or others to the authority 
of the United States in the States of Georgia, South 
Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ala- 
bama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida, 
and the laws can be sustained and enforced therein 
by the proper civil authority, State or Federal, and 
the people of the said States are well and loyally dis- 
posed, and have conformed, or will conform, in their 
legislation to the condition of affairs growing out of 
the amendment to the Constitution of the United 



238 KET-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

States prohibitiog slavery within the jurisdiction of 
the United States. 

u * * * fl^Q people of the several before men- 
tioned States have, in the manner aforesaid, given 
satisfactory evidence that they acquiesce in this sov- 
ereign and important revolution of the national 
unity. 

" It is believed to be a fundamental principle of 
government that people who have revolted, and who 
have been overcome and subdued, must either be 
dealt with so as to induce them voluntarily to become 
friends, or else they must be held by absolute mili- 
tary power, or devastated so as to prevent them from 
ever again doing harm as enemies, which last named 
policy is abhorrent to humanity and freedom. 

" The Constitution of the United States provides 
for constitutional communities only as States, and 
not as territories, dependencies, provinces, or protec- 
torates. 

u * * * Therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, Presi- 
dent of the United States, do hereby proclaim and 
declare that the insurrection which heretofore existed 
in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, North 
Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, 
Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida is at an end, and 
henceforth to be so regarded." 



THE CIVIL EIGHTS BILL. 239 



CIVIL EIGHTS BILL. 

AS ADOPTED BY OONGEE88, MARCH, 1866. 

§ 1. That all persons in the United States, and 
not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians 
not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the 
United States ; and such citizens of every race and 
color, without regard to any previous condition of 
Slavery or involuntary service, except as a punish- 
ment for crime, whereof the party shall have been 
duly convicted, shall have the same right, in every 
State and Territory, to make and enforce contracts, 
to sue, to be sued, be parties and give evidence ; to 
inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey 
personal property, and to full and equal benefit of 
all laws and proceedings for the security of person 
and property as are enjoyed by white citizens ; and 
shall be subject to the like punishment, pains and 
penalties, and to none other ; any law, statute, ordi- 



24:0 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

nance, regulation, or custom to the contrary not- 
withstanding. 

§ 2. And that any person who, under color of 
any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, 
shall subject, or cause to be subjected, any inhabit- 
ant of any State or Territory to the deprivation of 
any right secured or protected by this act, or to pun- 
ishment, pains, and penalties, on account of such 
person having at any time been held in a condition 
of slavery, or involuntary servitude, except for the 
punishment of crime whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted, or by the reason of his color or 
race, than is prescribed for the punishment of white 
persons, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, 
and, on conviction, shall be punished by a fine not 
exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment not 
exceeding one year, or both, in the discretion of the 
court. 

§ 3. That the district courts of the United States, 
within their respective districts, shall have, exclu- 
sively cf the courts of the several States, cognizance 
of all crimes and offences committed against the 
provisions of this act, and also, concurrently with the 
circuit courts of the United States, of all causes civil 
and criminal, affecting persons who are denied, or 
can not enforce in the courts of judicial tribunal 
of the State or locality where they may be, any of 



THE CIVIL EIGHTS BILL. 241 

the rights secured to them bj the first section of this 
act ; and if any suit or prosecution, civil or criminal, 
has been, or shall be commenced in any State court 
against any such person, for any cause whatsoever, 
civil or military, or any other person, any arrest or 
imprisonment, trespasses, or wrong done or com- 
mitted by virtue or under color of authority derived 
from this act, or the act establishing a bureau for the 
relief of freed men and refugees, and all acts amenda- 
tory thereof, or for refusing to do any act, upon the 
ground that it would be inconsistent with this act, 
such defendant shall have the right to remove such 
cause for trial to the proper district or circuit court, in 
the manner prescribed by the act relating to habeas 
corjous^ and regulating judicial proceedings in certain 
cases, approved March 3, 1863, and all acts amenda- 
tory thereto. The jurisdiction in civil and criminal 
matters hereby conferred on the district and circuit 
courts of the United States shall be exercised and 
enforced, in conformity with the laws of the United 
States, so far as such laws are suitable to carry the 
same into effect; but in all cases where such laws are 
not adapted to the object, or are deficient in the pro- 
visions necessary to furnish suitable remedies and 
punish offences against the law, the common law, as 
modified and changed by the Constitution and 
statutes of the State wherein the court having juris- 



242 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETT. 

diction of the cause, civil or criminal, is held, so far 
as the same is not inconsistent with the Constitution, 
and laws of the United States, shall be extended, 
and govern the said courts in the trial and disposition 
of such causes, and, if of a criminal nature, in the 
infliction of punishment on the party found guilty. 

§ 4. That the district attorneys, marshals, and 
deputy marshals, of the United States, the commis- 
sioners appointed by the circuit and territorial courts 
of the United States, with power of arresting, impris- 
oning, or bailing offenders against the laws of the 
United States, the officers and agents of the Freed- 
men's Bureau, and every other officer who may be 
specially empowered by the President of the United 
States, shall be, and they are, hereby specially 
authorized and required, at the expense of the United 
States, to institute proceedings against all and every 
person who shall violate the provisions of this act, 
and cause him or them to be arrested and imprisoned, 
or bailed, as the case may be, for trial before such of 
the United States or territorial courts as by this act 
have cognizance of the offence, and, with a view to 
affording reasonable protection to all persons in their 
constitutional rights of equality before the law, with- 
out distinction of race or color, or previous condition 
of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a pun- 
ishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been 



THE CIVIL EIGHTS BILL. 243 

duly convicted, and tlie prompt discharge of the 
duties of this act, it shall be the duty of the circuit 
courts of the United States and the superior courts 
of the territories of the United States, from time to 
time, to increase the number of Commissioners, so as 
to afford a speedy and convenient means for the 
arrest and examination of persons charged with a 
violation of this act. 

§ 5. That said Commissioners shall have concur- 
rent jurisdiction with the judges of the circuit and 
district courts of the United States, and the judges 
of the superior courts of the territories, severally and 
collectively, in term time and vacation, upon satiS' 
factory proof being made, to issue warrants and 
precepts for arresting and bringing before them all 
offenders against the provisions of this act, and, on 
examination, to discharge, admit to bail, or commit 
them for trial, as the facts may warrant. 

§ 6. And such Commissioners are hereby author- 
ized and required to exercise and discharge all the 
powers and duties conferred on them by this Act, 
and the same duties with regard to offences created 
by this act, as they are authorized by law to exercise 
with reo^ard to other offences aorainst the laws of the 
United States. That it shall be the duty of all mar- 
shals and deputy marshals to obey and execute all 
warrants and precepts issued under the provisions of 



244: KEY-ITOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

this act when to them directed, and should any mar- 
shal or deputy marshal refuse to receive such war- 
rant or other process, when tendered, or to use all 
proper means diligently to execute the same, he shall 
on conviction thereof be fined in the sura of one 
thousand dollars, to the use of the person upon 
whom the accused is alleged to have committed the 
offence ; and the better to enable the said Commis- 
sioners to execute their duties faithfully and effi- 
ciently, in conformity with the Constitution of the 
United States, and the requirements of this act, they 
are hereby authorized and empowered, within their 
counties respectively, to appoint, in writing under 
their hands, one or more suitable persons, from time 
to time, to execute all such warrants and other pro- 
cess as may be issued by them in the lawful perform- 
ance of their respective duties, and the person so 
appointed to execute any warrant or process as afore- 
said shall have authority to summon and call to their 
aid the bystanders of 2i posse comitatus of the proper 
county, or such portion of the land or naval forces of 
the United States, or of the militia, as may be neces- 
sary to the performance of the duty with which they 
are charged, and to insure a faithful observance of 
the clause of the Constitution which prohibits 
slavery, in conformity with the provisions of this 
act ; and said warrants shall run and be executed by 



THE CIVIL EIGHTS BILL. 245 

said officers anywhere in the State or Territory 
within which they are issued. 

§ 7. That any person who shall knowingly and 
wrongfully obstruct, hinder or prevent any officer or 
other person charged with the execution of any war- 
rant or process issued under the provisions of this act, 
or any person or persons lawfully assisting him or 
them, from arresting any person for whose apprehen- 
sion such warrant or process may have been issued ; 
or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such person 
from the custody of the officer, other person or per- 
sons, or those lawfully assisting, as aforesaid, when 
so arrested, pursuant to the authority herein given 
and declared ; or shall aid, abet or assist any person 
so arrested as aforesaid, directly or indirectly, to 
escape from the custody of the officer or other per- 
sons legally authorized, as aforesaid, or shall harbor 
or conceal any person for whom a warrant or process 
shall have been issued as aforesaid, so as to prevent 
his discovery and arrest after notice of knowledge of 
the fact that a warrant has been issued for the appre- 
hension of such person, shall for either of said 
offences be subject to a fine not exceeding one thou- 
sand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six 
months, by indictment before the district court of the 
United States for the district in which said offence 
may have been committed, or before the proper court 



246 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

of crirainal jurisdiction, if committed within any one 
of the organized Territories of the United States. 

§ 8. That the district attorneys, the marshals, 
their deputies, and the clerks of the said district and 
territorial courts, shall be paid for their services the 
like fees as may be allowed to them for similar 
services in other cases ; and in all cases where the 
proceedings are before a Commissioner he shall be 
entitled to a fee of ten dollars in full for his services 
in each case, inclusive of all services incident to such 
arrest and examination. The person or persons 
authorized to execute the process to be issued by such 
Commissioners for the arrest of offenders against the 
provisions of this act, shall be entitled to a fee of five 
dollars for each person he or they may arrest and 
take before any such Commissioner, as aforesaid, 
with such other fees as may be deemed reasonable by 
such Commissioner for such other additional services 
as may be necessarily performed by him or them — 
such as attending at the examination, keeping the 
prisoner in custody, and providing food and lodgings 
during his detention and until the final determina- 
tion of such Commissioner, and in general for per- 
forming such other duties as may be required in the 
premises, such fees to be made up in conformity with 
the fees usually charged by the ofiicers of the court 
of justice, within the proper district or county, as 



THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL. 247 

near as practicable, and paid out of the Treasury of 
the United States, on the certificate of the district 
within which the arrest is made, and to be recover- 
able from the defendant as part of the judgment in 
case of conviction. 

§ 9. That whenever the President of the United 
States shall have reason to believe that offences have 
been or are likely to be committed against the pro- 
visions of this act within any judicial district, it shall 
be lawful for him, in his discretion, to direct the 
judge, marshal and district attorney of such district 
to attend at such place within the district and for 
such time as he may designate, for the purpose of 
the more speedy arrest and trial of persons charged 
with the violation of this act ; and it shall be the 
duty of every judge or other oihcer, when any such 
requisition shall be received by him, to attend at the 
place and for the time therein designated. 

§ 10. That it shall be lawful for the President of 
the United States, or such persons as he may 
empower for that purpose, to employ such part of 
the land or naval forces of the United States, or of 
the militia, as shall be necessary to prevent the vio- 
lation and enforce the due execution of this act. 

§ 11. That upon all questions of law arising in any 
cause under the provisions of this act, a final appeal 
may be taken to the supreme court of the United States. 



248 KEY-NOTES OF AMBKICAN LEBEETY. 



FEEEDMEFS BUEEAU BILL, 

AS AMENDED AND APPEOVED BY THE XXXIXTH OONQEHSS. 

AN ACT to continue in force and to amend "An act to estab- 
lish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees," 
and for other purposes. 

Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Bep- 
resentatives of the United States of America in Con- 
gress assenibled^ That the act to establish a Bureau 
for the Kelief of Freedmen and Refugees, approved 
March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, shall 
continue in force for the term of two years from and 
after the passage of this act. 

§ 2. And be it further enacted^ That the super- 
vision and care of said bureau shall extend to all 
loyal refugees and freedmen, so far as the same shall 
be necessary to enable them as speedily as practicable 
to become self-supporting citizens of the United 
States, and to aid them in making the freedom con- 



249 



ferred by proclamation of the commander-in-chief, by 
emancipation under the laws of States, and by con- 
stitutional amendment, available to them and bene- 
ficial to the republic. 

§ 3. And he it ftorther enacted^ That the Presi- 
dent shall, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, appoint two assistant commissioners in addi- 
tion to those authorized by the act to which this is 
an amendment, who shall give like bonds and receive 
the same annual salary provided in said act, and 
each of the assistant commissioners of the bureau 
shall have charge of one district containing such ref- 
ugees or freedmen, to be assigned him by the Com- 
missioner, with the approval of the President. And 
the Commissioner shall, under the direction of the 
President, and so far as tlie same shall be, in his 
judgment, necessary for the efficient and economical 
administration of the affairs of the bureau, appoint 
such agents, clerks, and assistants as maybe required 
for the proper conduct of the bureau. Military offi- 
cers or enlisted men may be detailed for service and 
assigned to duty under this act ; and the President 
may, if in his judgment safe and judicious so to do, 
detail from the army all the officers and agents of 
tliis bureau ; but no officer so assigned shall have in- 
crease of pay or allowances. Each agent or clerk, 
not heretofore authorized by law, not being a mili- 



250 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

tar J officer, shall have an annual salary of not less 
than five hundred dollars, nor more than twelve hun- 
dred dollars, according to the service required of him. 
And it shall be the duty of the Commissioner, when 
it can be done consistently with public interest, to 
appoint, as assistant commissioners, agents, and 
clerks, such men as have proved their loyalty by 
faithful service in the armies of the Union during the 
rebellion. And all persons appointed to service 
under this act and the act to which this is an amend- 
ment shall be so far deemed in the military service 
of the United States as to be under the military juris- 
diction, and entitled to the military protection of the 
government while in discharge of the duties of their 
office. 

§ 4. And he it further enacted. That officers of 
the Yeteran Reserve Corps or of the volunteer ser- 
vice, now on duty in the Freedmen's Bureau as 
assistant commissioners, agents, medical officers, or in 
other capacities, whose regiments or corps have been 
or may hereafter be mustered out ot service, may be 
retained upon such duty as officers of said bureau, 
with the same compensation as is now provided by 
law for their respective grades ; and the Secretary of 
War shall have power to fill vacancies until other 
officers can be detailed in their places without detri- 
ment to the public service. 



251 



§ 5. And 1)6 it further enacted^ That tlie second 
section of the act to which this is an amendment 
shall be deemed to authorize the Secretary of War to 
issue such medical stores or other supplies and trans- 
portation, and afford such medical or other aid as 
may be needful for the purpose named in said sec- 
tion : Provided^ That no person shall be deemed 
"destitute," "suffering," or "dependent upon the 
government for support," within the meaning of this 
act, who is able to find employment, and could, by 
proper industry and exertion, avoid such destitution, 
suffering, or dependence. 

§ 6. Whereas, by the provisions of an act ap- 
proved February sixth, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
three, entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 
' An act for the collection of direct taxes in insurrec- 
tionary districts within the United States, and for 
other purposes,' approved June seventh, eighteen hun- 
dred and sixty-two," certain lands in the parishes of 
Saint Helena and Saint Luke, South Carolina, were 
bid in by the United States at public tax sales, and 
by the limitation of said act the time of redemption 
of said lands has expired; and whereas, in accord- 
ance with instructions issued by President Lincoln 
on the sixteenth day of September, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-three, to the United States direct tax com 
missioners for South Carolina, certain lands bid in by 



252 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

the United States in the parish of Saint Helena, in 
said State, were in part sold by the said tax commis- 
sioners to " heads of families of the African race," in 
parcels of not more than twenty acres to each pur- 
chaser; and whereas, under the said instructions, the 
said tax commissioners did also set apart as " school 
farms " certain parcels of land in said parish, num- 
bered on their plats from one to thirty-three, inclu- 
sive, making an aggregate of six thousand acres, more 
or less: Therefore, he it further enacted, That the 
sales made to " heads of families of the African race," 
under the instructions of President Lincoln to the 
United States direct tax commissioners for Sjuth 
Carolina, of date of September sixteenth, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-three, are hereby confirmed and 
established ; and all leases which have been made to 
such " heads of families," by said direct tax commis- 
sioners, shall be changed into certificates of sale in 
all cases wherein the lease provides for such substitu- 
tion; and all the lands jjow remaing unsold, which 
come within the same designation, being eight thou- 
sand acres, more or less, shall be disposed of accord- 
ing to said instructions. 

§ 7. And he it further enacted, That all other 
lands bid in by the United States at tax sales, being 
thirty-eight thousand acres, more or less, and now in 
the hands of the said tax commissioners as the prop- 



253 



ertj of the United States, in the parishes of Saint 
Helena and Saint Luke, excepting the ^' school farms," 
as specified in the preceding section, and so much as 
may be necessary for military and naval purposes at 
Hilton Head, Bay Point, and Land's End, and ex- 
cepting also the city of Port Royal, on Saint Helena 
island, and the town of Beaufort, shall be disposed 
of in parcels of twenty acres, at one dollar and fifty 
cents per acre, to such persons, and to such only, as 
have acquired and are now occupying lands under 
and agreeably to the provisions of General Sher- 
man's special field order, dated at Savannah, Georgia, 
January sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, 
and the remaining lands, if any, shall be disposed of 
in like manner to such persons as had acquired lands 
agreeably to the said order of General Sherman, but 
who have been dip.possessed by the restoration of the 
same to former owners: Provided^ That the lands 
Bold in compliance with the provisions of this and the 
preceding section shall not be alienated by their pur- 
chasers within six years from and after the passage 
of this act. 

§ 8. And he it further enacted^ That the " school 
farms " in the parish of Saint Helena, South Caro- 
lina, shall be sold, subject to any leases of the same, 
by the said tax commissioners, at public auction, on 
or before the first day of January, eighteen hundred 



254 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETT. 

and sixty-seven, at not less than ten dollars per acre ; 
and the lots in the city of Port Eoyal, as laid down 
by the said tax commissioners, and the lots and 
houses in the town of Beaufort, which are still held 
in like manner, shall be sold at public auction ; and 
the proceeds of said sales, after paying expenses of 
the surveys and sales, shall be invested in United 
States bonds, the interest of which shall be appropri- 
ated, under the direction of the Commissioner, to the 
support of schools, without distinction of color or 
race, on the islands in the parishes of Saint Helena 
and Saint Luke. 

§ 9. And he it further enacted^ That the assistant 
commissioners for South Carolina and Georgia are 
hereby authorized to examine all claims to lands in 
their respective States which are claimed under the 
provisions of General Sherman's special field order, 
and to give each person having a valid claim a war- 
rant upon the direct tax commissioners for South Car- 
olina for twenty acres of land, and the said direct 
tax commissioners shall issue to every person, or to 
his or her heirs, but in no case to any assigns, pre- 
senting such warrant, a lease of twenty acres of land, 
as provided for in section 7, for the term of six years ; 
but at any time thereafter, upon the payment of a 
sum not exceeding one dollar and fifty cents per acre, 
the person holding such lease shall be entitled to a 



255 

certificate of sale of said tract of twenty acres from 
the direct tax comiuissioner or such officer as may be 
authorized to issue the same; but no warrant shall 
be held valid longer than two years after the issue 
of the same. 

§ 10. And he it further enacted^ That the direct 
tax commissioners for South Carolina are hereby au- 
thorized and required at the earliest day practicable 
to survey the lands designated in section 7 into lots 
of twenty acres each, with proper metes and bounds 
distinctly marked, so that the several tracts shall be 
convenient in form, and as near as practicable have 
an average of fertility and woodland; and the 
expense of such surveys shall be paid from the pro- 
ceeds of the sales of said lands, or, if sooner required, 
out of any moneys received for other lands on these 
islands, sold by the United States for taxes, and now 
In the hands of the direct tax commissioners. 

§ 11. And he it further enacted^ That restoration 
of lands occupied by freedmen under General Sher- 
man's field order, dated at Savannah, Georgia, Jan- 
uary sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, shall 
not be made until after the crops of the present year 
shall have been gathered by the occupants of said 
lands, nor until a fair compensation shall have been 
made to them by the former owners of such lands or 
their legal representatives for all improvements or 



256 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LEBEETY. 

betterments erected or constructed thereon, and after 
due notice of the same being done shall have been 
given by the assistant commissioner. 

§ 12. And he it further enacted^ That the Com- 
missioner shall have power to seize, hold, use, lease, 
or sell all buildings and tenements, and any lands 
appertaining to the same, or otherwise,, formerly held 
under color of title by the late so-called Confederate 
States, and not heretofore disposed of by the United 
States, and any buildings or lands held in trust for 
the same by any person or persons, and to use the 
same or appropriate the proceeds derived therefrom 
to the education of the freed people ; and whenever 
the bureau shall cease to exist, such of said so-called 
Confederate States as shall have made provision for 
the education of their citizens without distinction of 
color shall receive the sum remaining unexpended of 
such sales or rentals, which shall be distributed 
among said States for educational purposes in pro- 
portion to their population. 

§ 13. And le it further enacted^ That the Com- 
missioner of this bureau shall at all times co-operate 
with private benevolent associations of citizens in 
aid of freedmen, and with agents and teachers, duly 
accredited and appointed by them, and shall hire or 
provide by lease buildings for purposes of education 
whenever such associations shall, without cost to the 



257 



government, provide suitable teachers and means of 
instructions ; and he shall furnish such protection as 
may be required for the safe conduct of such schools. 
§ 14. And he it further enacted^ That in every 
State or district where the ordinary course of judicial 
proceedings has been interrupted by the rebellion, 
and nntil the same shall be fully restored, and in 
every State or district whose constitutional relations 
to the government have been practically discontinued 
by the rebellion, and until such State shall have been 
restored in such relations, and shall be duly repre- 
sented in the Congress of the United States, the right 
to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and 
give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, 
and convey real and personal property, and to have 
full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings 
concerning personal liberty, personal security, and 
the acquisition, enjoyment, and disposition of estate, 
real and personal, including the constitutional right 
to bear arms, shall be secured to and enjoyed by all 
the citizens of such State or district without respect 
to race or color, or previous condition of slavery. 
And whenever in either of said States or districts the 
ordinary course of judicial proceedings has been inter- 
rupted by the rebellion, and until the same shall be 
fully restored, and until such State shall have been 
restored in its constitutional relations to the govern- 



258 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETY. 

ment, and shall be duly represented in the Congress 
of the United States, the President shall, through the 
Commissioner and the officers o^ the bureau, and 
Tinder such rules and regulations as the President, 
through the Secretary of War, shall prescribe, extend 
military protection and have military jurisdiction 
over all cases and questions concerning the free en- 
joyment of such immunities and rights, and no pen- 
alty or punishment for any violation of law shall be 
imposed or permitted because of race or color, or 
previous condition of slavery, other or greater than 
the penalty ol* punishment to which white persons 
may be liable by law for the like offence. But the 
jurisdiction conferred by this section upon the offi- 
cers of the bureau shall not exist in any State where 
the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has not 
been interrupted by the rebellion, and shall cease in 
every State when the courts of the State and of the 
United States are not disturbed in the peaceable 
course of justice, and after such State shall be fully 
restored in its constitutional relations to the govern- 
ment, and shall be duly represented in the Congress 
of the United States. 

§ 15. And he it further enacted^ That all officers, 
agents, and employes of this bureau, before entering 
upon the duties of their office, shall take the oath 
prescribed in the first section of the act to which this 



259 



is an amendment ; and all acts or parts of acts incon- 
sistent with the provisions of this act are hereby 
repealed. 

Schuyler Colfax, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
Lafayette S. Foster, 
President of Senate pro tempore. 

In the Hottbe of Repeesentatives United States, 

July 16, 18G6. 

The President of the United States having 
returned to the House of Representatives, in which 
it originated, the bill entitled " An act to continue in 
force and to amend ' An act to establish a Bureau for 
the Eelief of Freedmen and Refugees,' and for other 
purposes," with his objections thereto, the House of 
Representatives proceeded, in pursuance of the Con- 
stitution to reconsider the same ; and 

Resolved^ That the said bill pass, two-thirds of 
the House of Representatives agreeing to pass the 
same. 

Attest: Edward McPherson, 

Cleric House of Representatives of the United States, 

In Senate of the United States, 

July 16, 1866. 

The Senate having proceeded, in pursuance of 

the Constitution, to reconsider the bill entitled " An 



260 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETT. 

act to continue in force and to amend ' An act to 
establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and 
Refugess,' and for other purposes," returned to the 
House of Representatives bj the President of the 
United States, with his objections, and sent by the 
House of Representatives to the Senate with the mes- 
sage of the President returning the bill — 

Resolved^ That the bill do pass, two-thirds of the 
Senate agreeing to pass the same. 

Attest : J. W. Foeney, 

Secretary of the Senate of the United States, 



261 



PEOVOST MAESHAL-GENEEAL'S EEPOET. 

SHOWING THE NUMBER OF MEN ENLISTED, NUMBEE OF KILLED, 
WOUNDED, AND DEATHS FEOM DISEASE, DUEING THE 
REBELLION. 

Washington, D. C, Friday, April 27, 1866. 

The following is a condensed siimmarj of the 
results of the operations of this bureau, from its or- 
ganization to the close of the war. 

1. By means of a full and exact enrollment of all 
persons liable to conscription, under the law of 
March 3 and its amendments, a complete exhibit of 
the military resources of the loyal States, in men, 
was made, showing an aggregate number of 
2,254,063, not including 1,000,516 soldiers actually 
under arms, when hostilities ceased. 

2. One million one hundred and twenty thousand 
six hundred and twenty-one men were raised, at an 
average cost (on account of recruitment exclusive of 



262 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBEETT. 

bounties,) of $9.84 per man, while the cost of recruit- 
ing of 1,356,593 raised prior to the organization of 
the Bureau was $34.01 per man. A saving of over 
seventy cents on the dollar in the cost of raising 
troops was thus effected under this Bureau, notwith- 
standing the increase in the price of subsistence, 
transportation, rents, &c., during the last two years 
of the war. (Item: The number above given does 
not embrace the naval credits allowed under the 
eighth section of the act of July 4, 1864, nor credits 
for drafted men who paid commutation, the recruits 
for the regular array, nor the credits allowed by the 
Adjutant-General subsequent to May 25, 1865, for 
men raised prior to that date.) 

3. Seventy-six thousand five hundred and twenty- 
six deserters were arrested and returned to the army. 
The vigilance and energy of the officers of the Bu- 
reau, in this line of the business, put an effectual 
check to the wide-spread evil of desertion, which, at 
one time, impaired so seriously the numerical 
strength and efficiency of the army. 

4. The quotas of men furnished by the various 
parts of the country were equalized, and a propor- 
tionate share of military service secured from each, 
thus removing the very serious inequality of recruit- 
ment, which had arisen during the first two years of 
the war, and which, when the bureau was organized, 



PEOVOST maeshall-general's eepoet. 263 

had become an almost insuperable obstacle to the 
further progress of raising troops. 

5. Records were completed showing minutely the 
pliysical condition of 1,014,776 of the men examined, 
and tables of great scientific and professional value 
have been compiled from this data. 

6. The casualties in the entire military force of 
the nation during the war of the rebellion, as shown 
by the official muster-rolls and monthly returns, 
have been compiled with, in part, this result : 

KILLED IN ACTION OR DIED OF WOUNDS WHILE IN SERVICE. 

Commissioned officers 5,221 

Enlisted men 90,868 

DIED FROM DISEASE OR ACCIDENT. 

Commissioned officers 2,321 

Enlisted men 182,329 

Total loss in service 280,739 

These figures have been carefully compiled from 
the complete ofiicial file of muster-rolls and monthly 
returns, but yet entire accuracy is not claimed for 
them, as errors and omissions to some extent doubt- 
less prevailed in the rolls and returns. Deaths (from 
wounds or disease contracted in service) which oc- 



264 



KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 



curred after the men left the army are not included 
in these figm*es. 

7. The system of recruitment established by the 
Bureau, under the laws of Congress, if permanently 
adopted, (with such improvement as experience may 
suggest,) will be capable of maintaining the numer- 
ical strength and improving the character of the 
army in time of peace, or of promptly and econom- 
ically rendering available the JS^ational forces to any 
required extent in time of war. 



THE UNITED STATES ARMY. 



265 



THE UNITED STATES ARMY DURING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR ' 
OP 1861-65. 

The following statement shows the number of men 
furnished by each State : 



Men fiirnislied| I Aggregate No. 

under Act of Aggregate No. 'of men furnish'd 
April 15, 1861, of men fumisli'd under aU calls, 
for 75,000 militia under all calls, reduced to the 3 
for 3 months. | years' standard. 



Maine 

New Hampshire 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 

New York 

New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland 

West Virginia 

District of Columbia . 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Michigan 

Wisconson 

Minnesota 

Iowa 

Missouri 

Kentucky 

Kansas 

Tennessee 

Arkansas 

North Carolina...., 

California 

Nevada 

Oregon 

Washington Ter'ty 

Nebraska 

Colorado 

Dakota 

New Mexico 



Total. 



71745 
34,605 
35,246 

151,785 
23,711 
57,270 

464,156 
79,511 

366,326 
13,651 
49,731 
32,003 
16,872 

317,133 

195,147 

258,217 
90,119 
96,118 
25,034 
75,860 

108,773 
78,540 
20,097 
12,077 



7,451 
216 
617 
895 

1,279 

1,762 
181 

2,395 

2,688,523 



56,595 

30,827 

29,052 

123,844 

17,878 

50,514 

381,696 

55,785 

267,558 

10,303 

40,692 

27,653 

11,506 

237,976 

152,283 

212,694 

80,865 

78,985 

19,675 

68,182 

86,192 

70,348 

18,654 

12,077 



7,451 
216 
581 
895 
380 

1,762 
181 

1,011 

2,154,311 



266 KEY-NOTES OP AMEEICAIt LIBEBTT. 



HISTORY OF THE FLAG. 

BY A DISTINGUISHED HISTOEIAN. 

Men, in the aggregate, demand something besides 
abstract ideas and principles. Hence the desire for 
symbols — something visible to the eye and that ap- 
peals to the senses. Every nation has a flag that 
represents the country — every army a common ban- 
ner, which, to the soldier, stands for that army. It 
speaks to him in the din of battle, cheers him in the 
long and tedious march, and pleads with him on the 
disastrous retreat. 

Standards were originally carried on a pole or 
lance. It matters little what they may be, for the 
symbol is the same. 

In ancient times the Hebrew tribes had each its 
own standard — that of Ephraim, for instance, was a 
steer; of Benjamin, a wolf. Among the Greeks, the 
Athenians had an owl, and the Thebans a sphynx. 
The standard of Romulus was a bundle of hay tied to 
a pole, afterwards a human hand, and finally an eagle. 



HISTOKY OF THE FLAG. 267 

Eagles were at first made of wood, then of silver, with 
thunderbolts of gold. Under Caesar they were all 
gold, without thunderbolts, and were carried on a 
long pike. The Germans formerly fastened a 
streamer to a lance, which the duke carried in front 
of the army. Russia and Austria adopted the double 
headed eagle. The ancient national flag of England, 
all know, was the banner of St. George, a white field 
with a red cross. This was at first used in the Col- 
onies, but several changes were afterwards made. 

Of course, when they separated from the mother 
country, it was necessary to have a distinct flag of 
their own, and the Continental Congress appointed 
Dr. Franklin, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Harrison, a com- 
mittee to take the subject into consideration. They 
repaired to the American army, a little over 9,000 
strong, then assembled at Cambridge, and after due 
consideration, adopted one composed of seven white 
and seven red stripes, with the red and white crosses 
of St. George and St. Andrew, conjoined on a blue 
field in the corner, and named it " The Great Union 
Flag." The crosses of St. George and St. Andrew 
were retained to show the willingness of the colonies 
to return to their allegiance to the British crown, if 
their rights were secured. This flag was first hoisted 
on the first day of January, 1776. In the meantime, 
the various colonies had adopted distinctive badges, 



KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

SO tliat the different bodies of troops, that flocked to 
the army, had each its own banner. In Connecticut, 
each regiment had its own peculiar standard, on 
which were represented the arms of the colony, with 
the motto, " Qui transtulit sustinet " — (he who trans- 
planted us will sustain us.) The one that Putnam 
gave to the breeze on Prospect Hill on the 18th of 
July, 1775, was a red flag, with this motto on one 
side, and on the other, the words inscribed, "An 
appeal to Heaven." That of the floating batteries 
was a white ground with the same "Appeal to 
Heaven " upon it. It is supposed that at Bunker Hill 
our troops carried a red flag, with a pine tree on a 
white field in the corner. The first flag in South Car- 
olina was blue, with a crescent in the corner, and 
received its first baptism under Moultrie. In 1776, 
Col. Gadsen presented to Congress a flag to be used 
by the navy, which consisted of a rattle-snake on a 
yellow ground, with thirteen rattles, and coiled to 
strike. The motto was, "Don't tread on me.'' " The 
Great Union Flag," as described above, without the 
crosses, and sometimes with the rattle-snake and 
motto, " Don't tread on me," was used as a naval 
flag, and called the " Continental Flag." 

As the war progressed, different regiments and 
corps adopted peculiar flags, by which they were 
designated. The troops which Patrick Henry raised 



HISTORY OF THE FLAG. 269 

and called the '' Culpepper Minute Men," had a 
banner with a rattle-snake on it, and the mottoes, 
"Don't tread on me," and "Liberty or death," to- 
gether with their name. Morgan's celebrated rifle- 
men, called the "Morgan Rifles," not only had a 
peculiar uniform, but a flag of their own, on which 
was inscribed, "XI. Yirginia Regiment," and the 
words, " Morgan's Rifle Corps." On it was also the 
date, 1776, surrounded by a wreath of laurel. 
"Wherever this banner floated, the soldiers knew that 
deadly work was being done. 

"When the gallant Pulaski was raising a body of 
cavalry, in Baltimore, the nuns of Bethlehem sent 
him a banner of crimson silk, with emblems on it, 
wrought by their own hands. That of Washington's 
Life Guard was made of white silk, with various 
devices upon it, and the motto, " Conquer or die." 

It doubtless always will be customary in this 
country, during a war, for different regiments to have 
flags presented to them with various devices upon 
them. It was so during the recent war, but as the 
stars and stripes supplant them all, so in our revolu- 
tionary struggle, the " Great Union Flag," which 
was raised in Cambridge, took the place of all others 
and became the flag of the American army. 

But in 1777, Congress, on the 19th day of June, 
passed the following resolution : " Resolved^ That 



270 KEY-NOTES OF AMEEICAJST LIBERTY. 

the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen 
stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be 
thirteen stars, white, in a blue field, representing a 
new constellation." A constellation, however, could 
not well be represented on a flag, and so it was 
changed into a circle of stars, to represent harmony 
and union. Red is supposed to represent courage, 
white, integrity of purpose, and blue, steadfastness, 
love, and faith. This flag, however, was not used 
till the following autumn, and waved first over the 
memorable battle field of Saratoga. 

Thus our flag was born, which to-day is known, 
respected, and feared round the entire globe. In 
1794 it received a slight modification, evidently 
growing out of the intention at that time of Congress 
to add a new stripe with every additional State that 
came into the Union, for it passed that year the fol- 
lowing resolution : '^Hesolved^ That from and after 
the 1st day of May, Anno Domini 1795, the flag of 
the United States be fifteen stripes, alternate red and 
white. That the union be fifteen stars, white, in a 
blue field." In 1818, it was by another resolution 
of Congress, changed back into thirteen stripes, with 
twenty-one stars, in which it was provided that a 
new star should be added to the union on the admis- 
sion of each new State. That resolution has never 
been rescinded, till now thirty-six stars blaze on our 



HISTORY OF THE FLAG. 271 

banner. The symbol of our nationality, the record 
of our glory, it has become dear to the heart of the 
people. On the sea and on the land its history has 
been one to swell the heart with pride. The most 
beautiful flag in the world in its appearance, it is 
stained by no disgrace, for it has triumphed in every 
struggle. Through three wars it bore us on to vic- 
tory, and in this last terrible struggle against treason* 
though baptized in the blood of its own children, not 
a star has been eflfaced, and it still waves over a 
united nation. 

Whenever the " Star-Spangled Banner^' is sung, 
the spontaneous outburst of the vast masses, as the 
chorus is reached, shows what a hold that flag has on 
the popular heart. It not only represents our' nation- 
ality, bat it is the jpeoj^leh flag. It led them on to 
freedom — it does something more than appeal to 
their pride as a symbol of national greatness — it 
appeals to their affections as a friend of their dearest 
rights. We cannot better close this short history of 
our flag than by appending the following stirring 
poem of Drake : 

When freedom from lier mountain height 

Unfurled her standard to the air, 
SJ^e tore the azure robes of night, 

And set the stars of glory there! 



272 KEY-NOTES OF AMERICAN LIBERTY. 

She mingled with its gorgeous dyes 
The milky baldric of the skies, 
And striped its pure celestial white 
With streakings of the morning light; 
Then, from his mansion in the sun, 
She called her eagle-bearer down, 
And gave into his mighty hand 
The symbol of her chosen land I 

Majestic monarch of the cloud 

Who rear'st aloft thy regal form. 
To hear the tempest trumping loud 
And see the hghtning lances driven, 

When strive the warriors of the storm, 
And rolls the thunder drum of heaven, 
Child of the sun I to thee 'tis given 

To guard the banner of the free ; 
To hover in the sulphur smoke, 
To ward away the battle stroke ; 
And bid its blendings shine afar. 
Like rainbows on the cloud of war — 

The harbinger of victory I 

Flag of the brave 1 thy folds shall fly, 
The sign of hope and triumph high, 
When speaks the signal trumpet tone, 
And the long line comes gleaming on, 
(Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet. 
Hath dimmed the glittering bayonet,) 
Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn 
To where thy sky-born glories burn, 



HISTOET OF THE FLAG. 273 

And, as his springmg steps advance, 

Catch war and vengeance from the glance ; 

And when the cannon's mouthings loud 

Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud, 

And gory sabres rise and fall, 

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall; 

Then shall thy meteor glances glow. 

And cowering foes shall shrink beneath 
Each gallant arm that strikes below 

That lovely messenger of death. 

Flag of the seas I on ocean wave 
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave, 
When death, careering on the gale, 
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail. 
And frightened waves rush vdldly back, 
Before the broadside's reeling rack. 
Each dying wanderer of the sea, 
Shall look at once to heaven and thee, 
And smile to see thy splendor fly. 
In triumph o'er his closing eye. 

Flag of the free, heart's hope and home ! 

By angel hands to valor given; 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues were born in heaven I 
Forever float that standard sheet I 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us? 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 
And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us? 



12* 



FllOM 

THE SOUTH, 

COMPRISING 

THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECHES AND PUBLIC ACTS 

EMANATING FROM THE SOUTH DURING 

THEIR LATE STRUGGLE. 

FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES -1 Vol. 12mo. 



ooisra?:B:N"'i:3 = 

Speech of Hon. A. H. Stephens, delivered in the Hall of the House of 
Kepresentatives of Georgia, November 14th, 1860. 

Declaration of Causes which induced the Secession op South Cakolina. 

Ordinance of Se> ession of South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, 
North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Mississippi, Florida and Georgia. 

Speech of Jefffrson Davis on leaving the United States Senate. 

African Slavery, the Couner-Stone of the Southern Confederacy. A 
Speech by Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Con- 
federate States of America, dehvered at the Atheneum, Savannah, 
March 12, 1861. 

Robert Toombs' Address to the People or Georgia. Telegraphed from 
Washi igton, December 23, 1860. 

The Constitution of the Confederate States of America. 

Members of the Confederate Cabinet and Congress. 

Inaugural Address of Jefferson Davis. 

Speech of President Davis, at Richmond, June 1, 1861. 

Speech of Ex-Governor Uenry A. Wise. 

Proclamation by Jefferson Davis, granting Letters of Marque, 

Speech of Hon A. H. bTEPHENS, at Atlanta, Ga., April 30, 1861, 

Speech of J. M. Mason, at Ricbmoud, Va., June 8, 1861. 

Sam Houston's Speech, at Independence, Texas, May 10. 

Speech of Howell Cobb, at Atlanta, Ga., May 22, 1861. 

General R. E. Lee's Address to his Troops. 

Speech of Hon. A. H. Stephens, at Richmond, Va., April 22, 1861. 

The Last Manifesto of the Confederate Congress. 

The Last Proclamation of President Davis. 

Generals of the Confederate Army. 

Sent post paid xipon receipt of lietail JPrice. 

E. B. TREAT & CO., Publishers, 

654 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 

Agents Wanted. 



WASHINGTON & tIS GENERALS: 



COMPKISINO 

POPULAR BIOGPtAPIIIES 

OF 



By Hon. J. T. HEADLEY, 

Author of "Napoleon and his Marshals," "Sacked Moxtntains," &o. 



Embellished with mimerous Steel Plate Engravings. 



COMPLETE IN ONE LARGE OCTAVO VOLUME. 



This is truly a great national work, giving an authentic account of the early 
life, military career, pubUc services, and character of 

Major-G-eneral George Washington, Major-General ITatlianiel Greene, 

" Israel Putnam, " William Moultrie, 

*' Eicliard Montgomery, " Henry Knox, 

" Benedict Arnold, " Benjamin Lincolni 

" John Stark, " Charles Lee, 

" Philip Schuyler, " James Clinton, 

" Horatio ( rates, " John Sullivan, 

" Fredk. Wm. Steuben, " Lafayette, 

" William Sterling, Commodore Paul Jones. 
Including Brigadier-Generals Marion, Pickens, Mercer, Wooster, and others. 



From Preface. — The object in the following work is three-fold. First, to 
group around the "Father of his Country " the generals who stood shoulder 
to shoulder with Mm through the stormy period of the Revolution. Second, 
to :?ive in successive pictures rather than in military detail, the great battles 
of the Revoiutiou. Third, to present the early history of each general, show- 
ing how they were trained by Providence for the very work to which their 
lives were given. There could be no better time than now to contemplate 
those pure patriots, who knew no sectional interests, but were bouud together 
and borne aloft by a common love for the whole country — when Massachusetts 
caUed aloud from Bunker HiU, and Marion, from the swamps of South 
CaroUna, answered her — when New York and Virginia moved side by side, 
bound by a common interest, and resolv'd to share a common destiny. May 
that common inheritance never be divided ! 



Cloth, Gilt Side and Back, $3.50 

ZieatheVf Iiibrary Style, 4.00 

E. B. TREAT & CO., Publishers, 

651 BROADWAY, N. Y. 

Agents Wanted. 



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